Faithfulness in Testimony.

A fruitful result of faithful testimony is exemplified in the following incident, which I relate for the help and encouragement of our young readers especially.

C. W–had a very dear friend, L. C–, who was a member of the same congregation as she was. C. W– was led into the knowledge and enjoyment of the truth in which we rejoice-though I fear, not as highly prized by some as it should be, not having cost them what it cost many who received it years ago.

But L. C–, while retaining her membership in the denomination to which she belonged, became deeply interested in the miscalled " Christian Science," and accepted much of its evil teachings-not apprehending its evil character-and, like many others, not knowing the depths of evil which are concealed under the fair guise of attractive appearance and kindness.

C. W–, realizing that the Word of God forbids any fellowship with those who bring not the doctrine of Christ (2 Join;, ver. 10), refused the fellowship and company of her old-time friend, and finally, would not answer her letters. L. C– felt it very much, and became very bitter toward " a religion which could separate her from her friend," whom she had loved so well. In meeting a Christian friend, well-known to both, she said to him, " Isn't it dreadful that C– will not come to see me now, nor have anything to do with me! "

"Are you not associated with what is called ' Christian Science?' he asked.

" I have read some of its books," she answered, " and I know many lovely people who follow it. I am sure there is a lot of good done by it; and I think it most unkind and unchristian for C— not to speak with me."

" Don't you see, Miss L—, that faithfulness to the Lord, her Saviour, would compel C– to take such a course? You do not realize that ' Christian Science' is a wicked system."

" How can you speak that way? I know some of the loveliest characters who belong to the Christian Science Church."

" Yes, lovely characters, deceived by Satan, and on their way to perdition. Do you not know that 'Christian Science' positively overthrows the very foundation of Christianity?"

"No, indeed! I do not believe any such thing."

"Well, then, let me show you in a few words what ' Christian Science' really teaches. As an Episcopalian you know, or should know, that the foundation of Christianity rests upon the person and work of our Saviour, Jesus Christ-on the truth of His deity, and on His atoning death upon the cross for our sins, to deliver us from our guilt, and make us fit for God's holy presence. If you take away these two things, His Godhead and His sacrificial death in atonement for sin, you overthrow all Christianity, for these are the foundation-facts on which Christianity is established. This is what' Christian Science ' is doing. It says Jesus was just the mental conception of God which His mother had. It denies that He was indeed God manifested in flesh-having taken a body that He might on the cross die for our sins. In fact, it denies the need of His death at all-because, according to it, there is no such thing as sin. Adultery, murder, theft, lying, and the host of evil of which the world is full, according to 'Christian Science,' do not exist at all-it is only our poor mortal delusion which makes us think they exist, and as soon as we realize our error we will know that everything in the world is good, because God is all, and all is God; God is good, therefore all is good! ' Christian Science' would make our Lord Jesus a deceiver instead of a Saviour, for they deny His death on the cross for our sins, and as He did not die, they deny His resurrection. They blasphemously assert that Mrs. Eddy's book is more true than the Word of God, and is needed to teach what the Bible means. Now are you willing to give up the fundamental truths of Christianity and take Mrs. Eddy's book instead? "

" Well, this is new to me," answered L. C–. " I shall have to look into these things and ask a Scientist friend all about them."

"Yes, do. Ask her if she believes that Jesus Christ is our Creator, and to be worshiped as such? Ask her if she believes that the only way of salvation is by faith in the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross? Meanwhile I will send you a few pamphlets,* which I trust you may read carefully, and compare them with the Scriptures." *"The pamphlets sent were " A Few Words on Christian Science," comparing what Scripture says and what Christian Science says, 5 cents., and "An Analysis of Christian Science,"10 cent.*

Not long after this, C. W— received a letter from her friend, L. C–, containing the following:"You can tell Mr.– that I received the books he sent me, and have read them. I understand now where Christian Science is wrong about the blood of Christ, so I have discarded all thoughts of it entirely."

Thank God for a soul delivered from this snare of Satan. Let us be faithful in our testimony, and use the printed helps which God has graciously given us. F.

(Continued from page 208)

This testimony of Jehovah may be divided into two main parts, marked by Job's response to each.

1. The attributes of God seen in the universe (chaps. 38-40:5).

2. His control over His creatures (chaps. 40:6- 41:34).

Each portion has a character peculiar to itself, while both are closely linked together. The first dwells largely upon Jehovah's power, wisdom and goodness as displayed in the works of creation and providence; the second shows His control over those untameable beasts which defy man's power. The entire address is largely in the form of questions. Job had presumed to sit in judgment upon Jehovah and His ways; his competence for this is tested:what does he know? What can he do? Shall the creature-so puny in power, so ignorant, and withal so filled with vain pride,-presume to instruct God as to His duties, to point out to Him His failures, in fact to usurp His prerogatives ? The effect upon Job is seen in his two answers:he abases himself and lays his hand upon his mouth, in the first reply. In the second, he makes full confession of his sinful pride, and abhors himself, thus preparing the way for the outward recovery and restoration to prosperity.

We may say that the second part of the Lord's address is devoted to the humbling of Job's pride, by setting before him the creatures in which this pride is exhibited, in a typical way. The divine purpose can be seen throughout, and the effects are most blessed and complete.

Part I is devoted to the unfolding of the divine attributes of power, wisdom and goodness, in contrast to Job's weakness and ignorance. He is constrained to acknowledge his own lack of goodness in his confession-" I am vile." This portion falls into four sections.

1.God's call to Job (ch. 38:1-3).

2.Questions as to the works of creation (vers. 4-38).

3. The manifestation of His care over His creatures (chs. 38:39-39:30).

4. The effect upon Job (ch. 40:1-5).

I. God's Call to Job.

Out of that whirlwind, or golden storm-cloud (ch. 37:22), Jehovah replies to the vain questionings and lamentations of Job. It is sufficient to notice that it is not a reply to Elihu, which effectually disposes of the thought that the darkening of counsel was by him. Elihu had been God's spokesman, leading up to the divine manifestation which is now upon us. As Elihu had addressed Job throughout, so Jehovah follows up the words of His servant. "My desire is that the Almighty would answer me," was Job's closing word (ch. 31:35). He is now to have his wish granted; but how different the effect! "As a prince would I go near unto Him" (ver. 37), he had declared. " I am vile" is what he has to say when he hears His voice. Jehovah asks, "Who is this that darkeneth counsel," that hides the purposes of God and the truth, " bywords without knowledge ?" Job had poured out a flood of words-lamentations, protestations, accusations. There was much that was true and excellent, but all was vitiated, so far as God's purposes were concerned, by the exaltation of his own righteousness at the expense of Jehovah's. Instead of light, the clear flame of divine truth, all was a lurid smoke-cloud of unbelief which darkened the sun in the heavens. Who is this ? Is it some divine being, Jehovah's equal, who was calling in question the other's acts ? Was it some mighty angel, gifted with heavenly wisdom, that dared lay a charge against his Maker ? No, it was a man, frail, ignorant, sinful. The Lord's question turns Job's thought from all his fancied wrongs to himself. The psalmist, as he beholds the heavenly creation (Ps. 8), asks, " What is man ?" Abraham, in God's presence, had declared he was but "dust and ashes" (Gen. 18:27). Paul closes the opposer's mouth by asking, " Nay but, Oman, who art thou, that repliest against God ?" (Rom. 9:20). Man-the finite, fallible, fallen creature-shall he be more just than his Maker ?

This is God's question to all the vain words of men. They may be the cries of fancied wrong, or the empty attempts of human reason to explain the condition of the world about us, and of the human family in particular; but whatever form they take, they do but darken true wisdom. Over the doorway to all libraries, filled with volumes of human science, history and philosophy, wilfully or ignorantly excluding the revelation of God, may be written this divine question.

And yet Jehovah is not seeking to crush Job, but rather to bring him to a true knowledge of himself and of God. Let him gird up his loins like a man. God will not ask questions which a man cannot understand. If his loins are "girt about with truth," he can answer-as indeed he does-these questions. The very fact that Jehovah thus addresses Job shows His purposes of mercy for him. His appeal is to reason, and thus to conscience. He leads Job through the vast, and yet familiar, scenes of creation. Can he solve one of ten thousand of its riddles ? Can he open the hidden secrets of nature ? If not, why does he attempt to declare God's counsels, and intrude into the purposes of One who giveth not account to any of His matters; of whom the worshiping apostle declares, "How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out ! " (Rom. ii:33).

2. Questions as to the Works of Creation (chap. 38:4-38).

We come now to these questions as to God's creation, which give us a complete cycle of divine truth as exhibited in His works, fittingly grouped in seven parts.

(1) The foundations of the earth (vers. 4-7),

(2) The bounds of the sea (vers. 8-11).

(3) Day and night (vers. 12-15).

(4) Unknown depths (vers. 16-21).

(5) The elements (vers. 22-30).

(6) The heavenly bodies (vers. 31-33).
(7) The clouds and their control (vers. 34-38).

There is in one sense a simplicity in these questions that might lead to ready, though superficial, answers. We can imagine the youthful college student, with a smattering of geology, physical geography and astronomy, sitting down with complacence to such an "examination paper."

And yet let not modern science proclaim its ability to answer as Job could not. Advancement in outward knowledge there has been; discoveries of great laws and principles of nature; but can the scientist of the present day give more true and satisfying replies to these divine questions than could the patriarch of old ? What after all is human knowledge but a knowledge, as Socrates said, of our ignorance ? Job's own noble words (chap. 28) show that he had glimpses of this great fact, when for the moment he was at leisure from his own troubles. What is the key to all these questions ? It is God, the true knowledge of Himself. Knowing Him, we know the Author and Source of all knowledge. Leave Him out of account, and the sum of all science is a blank wall, beyond which still lies the hidden truth.

(1) Jehovah begins with the earth, the abode of man. Does Job know the history of his own dwelling place ? Where was he when the great Architect laid its foundations, sunk, not in the shifting sands, or upon the lasting rock, but in the empty space of apparent nothingness ?

"When hung amid the empty space,
The earth was balanced well."

Present day knowledge can talk learnedly of nebulose and the solar system, of attraction and the laws of gravitation, and explain that the reciprocal action of these laws has given the earth its form and stable relation with heavenly bodies. It can explain that by the laws of cohesion and of chemical affinity the particles of the earth cleave together.

But law means a Law-giver. Who has established these laws ? How do they act unfailingly ? Revelation, and that alone, gives the answer-"By Him all things consist" (Col. i:17). Where was Job, where was man, when the Lord established and set in motion these laws and principles ? The form of the question met Job's knowledge at that time; it equally meets man's advanced knowledge at the present. Indeed, its form was calculated to lead on his thought to wider fields of truth.

Who, Jehovah further asks, has laid down the measures of this great fabric and set His line upon it? The question suggests the possibility of another Presence, of One who was associated with Him, was His agent in laying down and carrying out the whole vast plan. Who was this ? "The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old . . .Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth" (Prov. 8:22,25). Or in the language of the New Testament, "All things were made (came into being, egeneto) by Him" (Jno. i:3). Here was a truth more wondrous even than creation; it tells of the divine Associate who, while putting into being His Father's plans, and delighting in them, had His eyes upon other objects:" My delights were with the sons of men." God in nature, as in all else, is ever saying, "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him."

The corner stone, the foundation of the earth, who laid it ? Where is it ? What is the basic law of physics or of chemistry ? Does science know now, any more than Job did then ? Atoms, ions, are grouped together, clasped and unclasped, as other great laws are brought to bear upon them. Where is the foundation law ? " Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (i Cor. 3:11). To be brought to God, to know Him, is the object of all facts, and nature is only in harmony with the great mediatorial law when it thus leads us to Himself. Only as seen thus do we hear the morning stars sing together. Only thus do the sons of God shout aloud for joy.

Most beautiful are these words describing the joy accompanying the establishment of the first creation. All nature was in harmony, and the heavens declared His glory.

" Forever singing as they shine,
The Hand that made us is divine."

If discord has come in it is not in any failure on His part to uphold all things by the word of His power. So too the heavenly intelligences, "the principalities and powers in the heavenly places," shouted in exultant joy as the marvelous panorama of nature opened out before them.

Who can limit the beauty of this wondrous creation? Our limited senses grasp some of its perfections; but their interlacing one with another, their heights and depths, who can fathom ? Who can say, were we as keen of sight and hearing as those "ethereal virtues," but that we too might catch " the music of the spheres?" If light and heat and sound are vibrations, who shall say that color has
not a music all its own, that music has not a fragrance answering to the sweet melody ?

How easily we pass beyond our finite knowledge! Even of this wondrous first creation we are profoundly ignorant. What we know but makes us realize the vast ocean of what we do not know. The light we have exposes the intensity of the surrounding darkness.

But this stable earth, with its unknown or partially known laws, is but the ante-chamber of God's moral universe. The physical is typical of the moral and the spiritual. Laws of gravitation, of numerical proportion and chemical properties are types of deeper things. That two and two make four, always and everywhere, declares the unvarying righteousness of Him who has established that basic fact. Combustion, in all its various stages, is a reminder of that all-devouring holiness of "our God," who is "a consuming fire." As we dwell upon these attributes of God's moral universe, we must again be overwhelmed not only with the sense of our ignorance, but of our unlikeness to His established order.

If we pass on in thought to the new creation, how grand, varied and infinitely perfect is all that passes before us. The stable earth, with its great laws, is a shadow of that new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness-of that new abode of truth and love into which sin can never come. God hath revealed to us these things by His Spirit; but "we know in part," and that knowledge will produce in us true humility, breathing forth its worship and praise.

For, blessed be God, He has given us to know Himself in the person of His beloved Son. This is life eternal, which links us with the coming glories which shall never fade. Can we not in fuller, higher way, join in the melody of the " sons of the morning"-for we are children of the day- and shout aloud with and beyond "the sons of God?"
No need to ask those whose eyes and hearts have thus been opened what part they have contributed to all this greatness, goodness and love. We hide our faces, and ascribe all the glory unto the Lamb.

Such in some feeble measure is the great truth involved in Jehovah's first question. When that question shall have been fully answered as to man and as to God, we can join in the language of the Psalm :

"Praise ye Jehovah. Praise ye Jehovah from the heavens; Praise Him in the heights. Praise ye Him, all His angels:Praise ye Him, all His hosts. Praise ye Him, sun and moon:Praise Him, all ye stars of light" (Ps. 148).

' 'And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever" (Rev. 5:13).

(2) Jehovah passes from the earth to "that great and wide sea," which is described not in its original creation, as part of the heavens and the earth, but as gushing forth from its mother's womb. It covered the whole face of the world, and "darkness was upon the face of the deep." Left to itself it
would have enveloped all; but its Maker was its Master, and set bounds to it, breaking as it were into the great mountain chains and forming a place barred and closed to all egress. Its storms and fury in His almighty hands are but the wailings of a newborn babe; He wraps it in the swaddling clothes of clouds and thick darkness, and hushes it to rest.

"The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea" (Ps. 93:3,4).

Thus at the beginning, and again when in judgment He permitted it to engulf the earth, God has restrained this restless mighty ocean. Man gazes upon it with awe, but cannot control its power. His "thousand fleets sweep over it in vain;" he "marks the earth with ruin," but his control stops with the shore.

How fittingly does this mighty ocean teach man his helplessness and ignorance! What secrets do its hidden depths hold! God alone has controlled it; His word holds back its proud waves.

So too in the ocean of evil-the pride of Satan which burst forth in rebellion against God, when the angels kept not their first estate-God's restraining hand holds all in check. The wicked, like the foaming sea, seem to rise higher and higher in their violence and pride, but God says to them, " Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further." Thus His restraining power over evil is seen. As Job witnessed iniquity seemingly triumphant, as he looked into the dark surging of his own self-willed
heart, he might well have been appalled; who but God can control evil ?

We look forward to the time when this control shall be absolute in that new heavens and new earth, when "there shall be no more sea." In anticipation of that day, when evil shall be banished to its eternal abode away from God's redeemed creation, we can own Him as supreme alone. S. R.

(To be continued.)

(Continued from page 270)

(6) Pointing next to the heavenly host, the Lord almost takes the words of Job (chap. 9 :9).He names special constellations, Pleiades and Orion, the groups making the Zodiac, and the Great Bear, ever pointing to the north. Commentators suggest varied meanings to these verses. Some think the allusion in the Pleiades is to a cluster of brilliant jewels :" Canst thou fasten the shining brooch on the bosom of the night ? "Others point out that Pleiades is the constellation that belongs to the Spring, as Orion to the Winter. To loose the bands of the latter would be to break up the Winter, as binding the sweet influences of the former would be to delay the Spring. Canst thou hinder the coming of Spring, or cause Winter to come to an end ? Canst thou change the ordered and onward march of the hosts of heaven, or cause the North to change its position? It has been pointed out that Kima, the Pleiades, means a "hinge," or pivot-that upon which all the heavenly bodies turn. Science points out that the whole visible universe is slowly, to our view, (yet with what inconceivable swiftness!) turning round an unknown center, apparently not far from the Kima, or hinge, of Pleiades. What if God were giving a hint to Job of this great center which held all things to itself ?-if He were seeking to show him the One who holds all things in His hand, and pointing him forward to that

"One far off divine event
To which the whole creation moves?"

One thing we do know, He, and He alone, can hold the stars in His hand, number and call them all by name, and bring them forth in due order, " for that He is strong in power, not one faileth " (Is. 40:26). The prophet reminds afflicted Israel that this One knows their affliction and their way. The greatest human power will grow weary, but " they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint" (Is. 40 :27-31).

As we gaze into those heavens, our feebleness might appal and overwhelm us. But when we ask, '' What is man ? " He shows us Him who was made "a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, and set above the works of His hands" (Ps. 8; Heb. 2). We see one like unto the Son of Man, yet the Ancient of Days. He it is who holds the seven stars in His right hand, yea, to whom all power in heaven and earth has been given. He can bind and loose. He can break the bonds of the long wintry night of sin, and bring on the eternal spring-time. Already we can hear His voice:"The winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing is come " (Song 2:11, 12). He has not given to us to change the order of nature, or to ascend up into those heavens, but He teaches us to give the true answer to His questions, and that answer is, " We see Jesus."

" I know He liveth now
At God's right hand above,
I know the throne on which He sits,
I know His truth and love."

(7) Jehovah concludes this portion of His address with fresh questionings as to the clouds, storms, and rain. Can Job bring down rain, or speak to the lightning flash ? Has he that understanding heart that knows the reason for the clouds-whether of rain or of grief-that can bring the refreshing showers upon the dusty earth. What food for reverent meditation we have in all this. May the spirit of the Psalms, the 8th and the 19th, the 104th, and the " Hallelujah Chorus" of the closing psalms be upon us as we survey it all.

3. The Manifestation of His care over His creatures (chaps. 38 :39-39:30).

We have thus been brought face to face with our weakness and ignorance in view of the infinite wisdom and power of God. We come next to the display of .that as seen in His protecting and providing care over all His creatures. We pass, in this portion, from the glories of the Creator to look at the wisdom and goodness of the God of Providence. He has not only devised the wondrous plan of the universe, but has filled the earth with living creatures, who are dependent upon Him for life and all things. This portion may be divided into the following parts :

(1) The beasts of prey (chap. 38 :39-41).

(2) The wild goats and their young (chap. 39:1-4),

(3) The wild ass of the desert (vers. 5-8).

(4) The wild aurochs (vers. 9-12).

(5) The ostrich (vers. 13-18).

(6) The horse (vers. 19-25).

(7) The hawk and eagle (vers. 26-30).

The series opens with a declaration of God's provision for beasts and birds of prey, as seen in the lion and raven; next, the wild animals of the mountain and desert come under His all-wise care; then the control of those beasts confessedly beyond man's power in strength and swiftness ; closing with the control of the migratory instincts of the birds. It is significant that the series opens and closes with mention of beasts and birds of prey. They might seem to be worthless, if not positively injurious, and yet He cares for them with unerring wisdom. Shall He fail to watch over His child who knows and trusts Him ?

(1) To what distraction would man be brought if he had for a single day to provide food for even-one class of these creatures. Only of God can it be said, "These wait all upon Thee, that Thou may-est give them their meat in due season." "The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God." "That Thou givest them they gather :Thou openest thy hand, they are filled with good " (Ps. 104 :21, 27, 28). God not only tolerates, but cares for these creatures which prey upon others. They are part of His wise plan-once put under the hand of man and subject to him, but now turned against him as enemies. Thus Satan, whose assaults Job was feeling, was only the creature of God's will, working even by his enmity the purposes of God. If Job is ignorant of his devices, God is not, and will bring good out of all his ravening and roaring.

So also the ravens cry, the young and helpless ones, yet God feedeth them. These feeders upon carrion may seem worse than useless to man, but God takes care of them. In each case here it is the young of animals that are the objects of His care. They are perfectly helpless, with nothing but their cry to attract attention; God does not turn a deaf ear even to the croak of a raven. " Consider the ravens :for they neither sow nor reap ; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them ; how much more are ye better than the fowls?" (Luke 12:24).

(2) What does Job know of the habits of the wild animals inhabiting the inaccessible mountains ? "The high hills are a refuge for the goats" (Ps. 104:18). He might know in general the period of gestation of these elusive creatures, but does he know and watch over each parent animal, guard its life, safely bringing it through its time of peril ? How amazing and uniform it all is, how utterly beyond man's knowledge or power. And these young, for a brief time sustained by their parent, then going off by themselves-who watches over them ?

If God cares for these "rock-climbers," shall He not watch the steps of His timid people who are seeking to climb over the rugged rocks of adversity? Will He not be with them in the birth-throes of fearful experiences, and give them a happy issue out of all their troubles ?

(3) Passing from the mountain to the plain, Jehovah points out the solitary denizen of those waste places, the wild ass. He is different entirely from the wild goats in ways and in habit, but one thing he has in common with them, he is absolutely dependent upon his Creator. What control has Job over a creature like this, who knows no bonds, serves no master ? As he thinks of their freedom,
Job might sigh beneath his burdens. God is able to loosen his bonds. Let him not doubt, but wait on God.

(4) Still dwelling upon wild creatures, God asks if Job can control and cause to serve him the great aurochs, or the wild antelope of the plains. Will he plough and bear the burdens of domestic labor like the ox ? That wild, untamed nature yields but to One. Can Job doubt that He will control all things, even the wild powers of evil, and make them the obedient servants of His will ? Thus God will bring into captivity the wild and wandering thoughts of His poor servant, and bring a bountiful harvest of blessing through his bitter experiences.

(5) All things, be they never so wild and apparently senseless, are His creatures, not forgotten by Him. Here is another one, the ostrich of the desert, whose wings vibrate as she races with the speed of the wind. There is, according to scholars, no mention of the peacock here. The general thought of verse 13 is thus :the ostrich does not use its wings and feathers to protect and care for its young, but careless and neglectful of its eggs and its brood, flees from the real or fancied enemy. Here is a creature whom God Himself apparently has deprived of the ordinary maternal instincts. Yet some One – Who?-cares for the helpless brood.* *We scarcely need mention the unbelief which says that the writer is mistaken in this description of the ostrich. Even so excellent an author as Dr. Wood falls here into this gross evil, of unintentionally saying that God made a mistake in His description of the ostrich !-that its eggs are left upon the sand to deceive prowlers who are seeking the nest, or that they are for the food of the newly-hatched birds ! We prefer to take our natural history, as all else, from the Divine Author. There can be no doubt that all that is here said of this wild bird of the desert is absolutely true, and according to all right interpretation of its action.*

(6) By a natural transition from the swiftness of the ostrich, Jehovah passes to that embodiment of swiftness, strength and grace, the horse, and more particularly the war-horse. Job is asked if he has given strength to the horse, and combined it with the grace and beauty expressed by his flowing mane. His prancing is as agile as the grasshopper, his neighing and shrill snorting striking terror to the heart. What more majestic and withal so terrifying as the pawing rage of the battle-horse, eager for the fray? Nothing can turn him from his onward dash to meet the charging hosts. The arms and accouterments of his rider clash against his sides as he rushes over the ground, "swallowing it " in his headlong speed. The noise of battle is music to him; he scents the battle from afar, the shouts of the captains and the clash of arms. Here is a beast, not exactly wild, but endued with all the strength and swiftness of the wildest. What part has Job had in devising and creating so remarkable a creature?

The horse, especially in the days of which our book speaks, and in the East, was chiefly used in war. God warned His people not to put their trust in this mighty agent of war :" The horse is a vain thing for safety." '' Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God " (Ps. 20 :7). It is He who " hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea" (Ex. 15 :i). So infinitely exalted is Jehovah above all His creatures. Let Job remember how puny he too is, and humble himself before Him who is God over all. His deliverance must come, not from horses, but from the Lord on high.

(7) Returning in the cycle to the creatures that prey upon others, Jehovah asks if it is Job's wisdom that directs the hawk to take its southward journey as the winter approaches. What mysterious power, called instinct, is that which moves the birds to migrate to warmer climes ? If it is merely the lack of food, why do they fly when food is still in plenty, as the swallows ? and why in flocks ? and why to the South? "The stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming" (Jer. 8 :7).

The eagle-does it rise to giddy heights at man's command, and build its nest on some high crag from whence its eye takes in the far distant prey for its helpless young ? It follows that battle into which the horse has rushed, and " where the slain are, there is she." God uses these all to fulfil His will, and He sustains and cares for them. He will call them to one great feast at last, when the angel shall summon them :" Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great" (Rev. 19:17, 18).

Let Job but learn his lesson, and he will be satisfied with good things; his youth will be renewed like the eagle, he will mount up with wings, never again to grow weary.

And so Jehovah descends to human level and points out these familiar objects in the scene about the suffering saint. Does he see that prowling lioness ? Who gives it food for its young ? Who hearkens to the hungry croak of the raven ? Who watches over the mother-gazelle ? Who controls the wild ass or the mighty aurochs ? Who preserves the brilliant but stupid ostrich, the prancing battle horse? Who guides the hawk in its homing flight, or the king of birds, the eagle, with its home on high? There is but one answer :

" He everywhere hath sway,

And all things serve His might:
His every act pure blessing is,
His path unsullied light."

"O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all:the earth is full of thy riches." " My meditation of Him shall be sweet; I will be glad in the Lord" (Ps. 104 :24, 34).

4.The effect upon Job. (chap. 40 :1-5.)

Thus Jehovah closes His first testing of Job. He has taken, as it were, the clay of Creation and put it upon the eyes of the poor sufferer, who had been blinded by his own griefs to all the power, wisdom and goodness of God. Will Job "go and wash in the pool of Siloam?" Will he bow to the testing of his Creator ?

"Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct Him ? He that reproveth God, let him answer it." Here lies the root of Job's trouble:he had sat in judgment upon God ; he had accused the Omnipotent of evil ? God has drawn near, has made His presence felt, and lifted the veil from the face of Nature to reveal part of His character. What is the effect upon the proud man ?

" I am vile ; what shall I answer Thee?"

" I will lay my hand upon my mouth."

Many words had Job uttered :at the beginning of his sufferings, words of faith in God; even during his "crying in the night," many beautiful and noble thoughts had fallen from his lips, but no such words as these-music in the ear of God- confession, contrition, mute acknowledgment of the whole error of his thought.

Here practically closes the test of Job; and yet in faithfulness Jehovah will probe still further to the deepest recesses of his heart, and lay bare its potential evil. So we must listen further to what the
Lord has to speak. S. R.

(To be continued.)

We give this letter for the encouragement of our brethren in the army to wait upon God with patience in their circumstances and surroundings. "Call upon Me in the day of trouble," says our God; "I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me" (Ps. 50:15).

3.-I am clean (chap. 31).

(Continued from page 16.)

We come now to the closing portion of Job's monologue. In the first part he had dwelt upon his former greatness and goodness; in the second part he contrasted it with his present wretched state; in both these he finds food for pride; its climax is reached in the present chapter, where he asserts his purity, goodness and righteousness in the completes! way. There is no bitterness as when in his former replies he resented the accusations of his friends, nor vain crying of injustice at the hands of God. Quickly, deliberately and thoroughly he surveys his life and character, and comes to the conclusion that he welcomes both the indictment of man and the judgment of God.

We cannot question the truth and the sincerity of all that he says, but, we may well ask, is his conclusion a happy one even for himself? He closes the mouths of his friends, he seems abundantly satisfied with himself; suppose God were to let it go at that, is the spectacle of a completely self-vindicated man a pleasant one? Ah, divine truth, as well as divine love, will not suffer him to wrap himself in these weeds of self-righteousness. They are, for the most part, borrowed garments belonging to God, to whom Job gives not one whit of glory; and all the rest is but "filthy rags" which belong to the dust and ashes where Job is soon to put himself.

In other words, God is left out save as related to Job's righteousness:His greatness, goodness, holiness, as themes of worship and joy are ignored. At the close of all that he has to say, Job is as far from God as at the beginning; nay, further. When we remember that all God's ways with man are to bring him close to Himself, we see the folly and sin of Job's course. No wonder that other voices with other themes must be heard before the " end of the Lord " is reached.

But let us seek to analyze this last portion of Job's monologue, and gather sober lessons for ourselves from the vain effort of this best of men. Surely the lesson must be, " Cease ye from man."

The main subjects of the chapter group themselves under seven heads:

(1) Asseveration of chastity and uprightness (vers. 1-12).

(2) Kindness at home and abroad (vers. 13-23).

(3)Refusal of all forms of idolatry (vers. 24-28).

(4)Friendship and hospitality (vers. 29-32).

(5) No hypocrisy or fear of man (vers. 33, 34).

(6) A challenge to man and to God (vers. 35-37).

(7)His very land a witness for him (vers. 38-40).
(i) In opening this sevenfold protestation of purity and integrity, Job dwells upon a side of his character and conduct which even his friends had not openly challenged. Whatever intimations they have made of general wickedness-turning from God, violent dealings with the needy and others- the subject of personal purity had not been touched upon.

But if Job is to be vindicated before man and God, surely this department of his life must be investigated. He approaches it with the boldness of conscious innocence. His eyes, the avenue to the heart, had been closed by full purpose-a "covenant," against even a look at what might stir up passion. Our Lord in the "sermon on the mount," had shown that essential purity must lie in the heart, and not merely in abstinence in outward conduct (Matt. 5:27, 28). Asserting his purity, Job points out that he was moved by the fear of God, who would surely recompense sin upon the wicked. " How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" said Joseph when assailed by the temptress (Gen. 39:9). In an hour of spiritual sloth, David had allowed his eyes to wander, and had fallen (2 Sam. n:2). Job was conscious that God watched his every step, and appeals to Him to be tested, weighed in the balance (vers. 5,6). He seems here to speak of general integrity, and in the two following verses, but returns to the general subject with which he began, and dwells upon the sin of adultery against a neighbor (vers. 9-12). In all he was pure-willing to have his own home violated if such were not the case. We get here a glimpse of his family life, equaling in sanctity that of Isaac, Joseph, and the purest of the patriarchs.

But we must take note of the self-righteousness which moved Job to speak of himself thus. He was arraying himself rather than giving glory to God. Doubtless at bottom he was a man of genuine piety, but it is not glory to set forth one's own glory.

(2) He enlarges here on what he had already dwelt upon-denied by his friends-his benevolence, kindness and uprightness. Beginning with the household whose well-ordered character was the outgrowth of the inherent purity of its master, he asserts his equity in all his dealings with his servants, recognizing their common nature and standing before God " who is no respecter of persons." Passing out to the needy poor, the fatherless and the widow had shared his food, and he had warmed them with his clothing. In brief he was as a father to the orphan, and as a son to the widow. Surely we have here an illustration of "pure religion and undefiled" (Jas. i:27).

While dwelling upon his beneficence, Job shows how he had not taken advantage of any legal technicality which would have exonerated him in any severe dealing with the needy. When he saw his "help in the gate,"-the judges disposed to decide in his favor, not as bribed, but giving him his just dues-he had not carried his case against the orphans. If he had lifted his hand against them, he says, " let mine arm drop from my shoulder-blade."

To all of this we can but say, True and excellent, but why should he speak of it? Why not let his fear of God keep him from these things, rather than boast of them?

(3) Having declared his benevolence, Job naturally passes on to speak of wealth, and disclaims the love of gold so common to man; that "covetous-ness which is idolatry" (Col. 3:5). When his riches had increased, he had not set his heart upon them; gold had not allured him. And when he lifted up his eyes to the resplendent heavens, he had not given the glory to the sun, a creature of God, nor to the moon, "queen of heaven," walking in splendor; nor even secretly wafted a kiss of worship to them, for God would have been denied thereby; he would have been a hypocrite, well deserving punishment.

(4) Job's strong point is his kindness to his fellow-men. Here he declares that even to his enemies he had been just. He had not been glad at their calamity, nor even in secret wished a curse to blight their life. He could call the men of his own household to bear witness. Had any one ever said they knew a hungry man whom he had not satisfied with his own food ? No stranger was ever left beside his home in the street; his door was ever open to them-in our modern colloquialism, " the latch string was always outside."

(5) Job now declares his complete openness. He was not afraid of the great, did nothing behind closed doors which he would not have declared publicly. He had not acted as men so generally do, hiding their sins from the eye of man-or, as our version and many render the words, "as Adam," who hid from the presence of God to conceal the shame of his guilt. Job walked in the light, where all could see him.

(6) He thus reaches the climax:he is chaste, just, God-fearing, kind, sincere-what has he to fear? He challenges all; would that he had one to hear him. "Behold my signature !" he cries. I sign my name to the catalogue of my virtues. "Let the Almighty answer me!" "Let mine adversary produce his charges in writing."

We cannot believe that any but a true man could thus challenge his accusers. If God be his adversary, let Him write the charges in a book! Job would carry it on his shoulder in triumph, as a mark of dignity, or as a diadem upon his brow! He would disport himself as a prince with it!

Yet we need only wait a little to hear this "prince" saying:" I have heard of Thee with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee." Job's thoughts are mixed:he is not exactly meeting God as a sinner, but as one who is conscious of "the root of the matter" in his heart. His mistake is to confound this with his own personal worthiness, and thus mar the very thought of grace. Who of all the sons of men could stand before a thrice holy God, and say "I am clean ?" "In Thy sight shall no man living be justified."

(7) The conclusion seems almost tame, for after the appeal to God and man, Job descends to inanimate earth. He appeals to his land to bear witness if he has acquired it unjustly, or used its yield as his own which belonged to another; if he has taken away property from another(as Ahab took the vineyard and life of Naboth), let the very furrow sweep out their charge, let the fertile soil yield thistles instead of wheat, tares instead of barley.

It has even been suggested that Job appeals to the land to declare if he has treated it unkindly, so that it needed a Sabbath-rest-"Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths;" but the first meaning seems the simplest.

"The words of Job are ended." He had called upon earth and man, yea, upon God, to declare his righteousness. He would have all unite to sing his praise! How different from that happy time when all nature shall speak forth the praises of the Lord, the King. " Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein:then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord; for He cometh to judge the earth" (Ps. 96:12, 13). Let us turn from the self-praise of Job to pay our tribute of worship "Unto Him that loveth us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen" (Rev. 1:5, 6).

Job's words will be rightly ended when he is ready to give praise to the One who alone is worthy of it. We are glad to be through with Job's words as uttered here. S. R.

(To be continued.)

(Substance of an Address by H. A. ironside.)

The Word of God makes it abundantly clear that, as the dispensation draws to a close, ministers of Satan will become increasingly prominent in the professing church. All down through the dispensation these unhallowed traffickers in holy things have been the bane of Christendom; but, as the coming of the Lord draws near, and the Holy Spirit is about to leave the scene with the Church at its Rapture, it is but to be expected that these false teachers will increase both in numbers and pretensions.

Those who are of Laodicean tendency, " neither cold nor hot," will perhaps object to any man being called a minister of Satan, but such should remember that this is their scriptural designation:2 Cor. ii :13-15 so speaks of them. Therefore it is not lack of charity that leads one to apply this opprobrious term. In the passage referred to they are clearly identified for us.

There we learn that Satan's ministers are not necessarily men whose outward lives are manifestly evil. They may be, to all outward appearance, paragons of virtue, while inwardly opposed to everything that is really of God. The Word says, " Such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works." Outwardly they maybe without a flaw ; standing for national and civic righteousness; greatly concerned about matters of moral betterment; insistent on reforms of various kinds, which are seemingly conducive to human comfort. But to use a modern term, all this proves, upon careful examination, to be but a kind of humanitarian camouflage to hide their real purpose, which is the destruction of the authority of the Word of God over the consciences of their dupes, and the denial of the right of the Lord Jesus to the obedience of men. Their social gospels are but covers for their Satanic perversions of the truth of God. It is concerning such that the apostle Paul wrote:"Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." Ponder carefully Galatians i :6-9.

In one Epistle after another of the New Testament we are warned against these ministers of Satan. Such are they who, according to Philippians 3:18, are "enemies of the cross of Christ, minding earthly things." It is not that they deny that Jesus died; in fact, they speak of His death as that of a martyr, but they deny its atoning value, and so they hate the cross in which the apostle Paul gloried (Gal. 6 :14). When he writes that "their God is their belly," we need not suppose he means us to understand that they are always characterized by gross sins and vile immorality, though their system leads to that eventually, inasmuch as it takes away the fear of God, and all restraint therefore from the conscience. But the point is, they know no other God save the god whom they find, or imagine they find, within themselves :in other words, their god is self, for whom they live, and to whom they minister. In the epistle to the Colossians we find these ministers of Satan putting human philosophy in place of the gospel-setting forth their rationalizing systems instead of the message of grace which God has committed to His servants, beseeching men to be reconciled to Himself.

These false teachers, self-satisfied, self-assertive, self-taught, self-centered and conceited, deny everything outside of the range of their own narrow vision or sensations, and therefore have no place in their philosophy for a divine revelation-an incarnate God, a vicarious atonement, a risen and glorified Christ, or a coming Judge. Preaching fables in place of the word of God (2 Tim. 4:4), confessing not Jesus Christ having come in flesh (i John 4 ; 2), nor coming in body (2 John 7, literal rendering), they deny the Lord that bought them (2 Pet. 2:1); and the preaching business is with them but a lucrative profession. Covetousness is the evil principle that controls them; thus for filthy lucre they gamble with the souls of their hearers!

The end for them and their followers is plainly told out in Jude's solemn epistle. Having crept in among the people of God (and of old all creeping things were unclean, and to be avoided), they are at last seen in open and unabashed denial of everything that the Christian heart holds dear-"Turning the grace of God into lasciviousness;" rushing like fools "upon the thick bosses of the Almighty;" glorying in their three-fold apostasy, these followers of Cain, Balaam and Core, ridicule the blood of atonement, offering instead the fruits of their own labor for the sin of their souls; they act as though o-ain were godliness, and the successful preacher is the man. who accumulates most of this world's wealth, and receives the applause of his fellows. They set aside the Lordship of Christ for a religious democracy that owns subjection to no power, either human or divine, outside of themselves; and so shall share the apostate's doom-perish without remedy. What an end, and what an awakening for men, whom admiring thousands have held as the prophets of a new dispensation! In reality they are but the John-Baptists of the Antichrist, and will share his fate.

How solemn the responsibility resting upon each Spirit-taught and Bible-instructed Christian, to heed the word, " From such turn away."

Surely there never was a time when believers, who value the great deposit of truth found in the word of God, should stand more firmly and unitedly for it than in these closing days of the age of grace. Fullest charity there may well be for the faults and failures of any who love the truth and yet exhibit inability to grasp much that is involved in it; but there can be no quarter whatever for the enemies of the Cross, who destroy everything that is of God, and leave their foolish followers without hope in view of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Ps. 11:3).

Satan's ministers are known by their fruits. Our Lord has warned us against " false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing " (Matt. 7 :15). They make a great pretense of charity and toleration, but their ire is at once aroused when the Word of God is faithfully proclaimed. From all such the call is to separation. The lines need to be more clearly drawn than ever as each side lines up for the last great conflict.

Solemn indeed would it be for us if God had to say as to Israel of old, "The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means, and my people love to have it so-and what will you do in the end thereof ? "

QUES. 10.-What are we to understand by " I am the Root and the Offspring of David " (Rev. 22:16) ?

ANS.-As God by whom all things were made (Jno. 1:3; Heb. 1 :2), He is the Soot of David-of Him David had his existence. But according to the flesh, in taking "the body prepared Him" (Heb. 10:5), our Saviour was born of the posterity of David (Acts 2 :30). Godhead and humanity being united in His person, Christ is both the " Root and the " Offspring " of David.

QUES. 11.-What is the "old leaven " in 1 Cor. 5:7? And how were the Corinthians to "purge out the old leaven," when the apostle says, " as ye are unleavened? "

ANS.-The "old leaven" is the activity of the flesh. The flesh's activity was sadly allowed among them at Corinth, partly through ignorance, partly through evil workers among them in the apostle's absence, and by lustful persons among them. The apostle urges judgment upon the activities of the flesh-"purge out the old leaven," so that saints might be unleavened in practice as they were in their standing before God, in new creation. Their state, or practice, was to correspond with their God-given position, in Christ.

QUES. 12.-Does Scripture show that there will be a regathering of the Jews in their own land (Palestine) before the tribulation?

ANS.-It certainly does. Zech. 11 :16 and 12 :9-14 show that it is "in the land," in Palestine, that God deals with the Jews, in greatest distress to turn them back to Jehovah in repentance and great brokenness of spirit. This "time of Jacob's trouble " takes place chiefly in the last half of the 70th week (Dan. 9 :26, 27) ; they are "in the land" therefore, before and when their great tribulation takes place. (See also Matt. 24 :15-27.)

I love to hear of Jesus,
Whose quenchless, deathless love
Brought Him from highest glory-
The Father's home above.
In grace and boundless goodness
He left yon world of bliss,
And came, God's Lamb, to suffer
For a guilty world like this.

I love to think of Jesus,
The Holy and Divine,
Who died between yon culprits
To win this soul of mine.
He paid the utmost farthing
Of my augmented debt-
That love supreme, unfathomed,
I never can forget.

I love to speak of Jesus,
To pilgrims on their way-
Saved from the hell of darkness
That once before them lay;
And of the glorious heaven
That sinners will possess
If they receive the Saviour,
And Him as Lord confess.

I love to work for Jesus
On earth's dark fields of time;
His service is so precious-
Most noble and sublime.
'Tis work that stands forever;
Why then should I not toil ?
When He rewards His servants,
Each act will be on file.

But let me not be prompted
To work for the reward;
I would not toil for garlands,
But only for my Lord.
'Tis love-pure love to Jesus-
That keeps me plodding on;
So in His strength I'll labor
Until the day is gone.
And then it will be worship,
Unhindered, full and sweet;
I'll cast my crown before Him,
I'll cast it at His feet.
In accents loud, unending,
I'll join to sing the song
With all the saints in glory,
Uncounted millions strong.

C. C. Crowston

Yes, leave it with Him-what else can you do?
He knoweth it all and careth for you.
His promise is sure, His word He'll not break;
He will never, no, never, no, never forsake.

He has kept you thus far in your journey towards home,
And His arms of love compass whatever may come;
So leave it with Him-all your problems and fears,
For He's just the same now as in all the past years.

Yes, leave all with Him in all future days,
He will keep you, and bless you in wonderful ways;
And some day He'll take you from stress and from care
To be with Him forever at home over there.

C. Markham.

(Concluded from page 306)

Israel had stumbled at that stumbling stone- J. their own Messiah come in grace to lead them in repentance back to God. " Have they stumbled that they should fall ? Far be the thought ; but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness?" If those that were "bidden" refuse to sup of His grace, then they must see others enjoy the royal bounty. If Israel will but look, she may see the knowledge of Jehovah-as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ-enriching the world and bringing salvation to the Gentiles, delivering from all uncleanness and converting them to God from idols.

The apostle's hope is that this spectacle of grace may provoke some of his brethren after the flesh to jealousy, and bring them to repentance, and so to salvation.

But if the effect of the gospel now going out, on account of Israel's having stumbled, has enriched the world and brought salvation to the Gentiles, what will be the effect of the gospel going out again, not on account of Israel being cast away, but on account of her reception back to favor with God ? The gospel then (of the kingdom) being accompanied by the story of God's dealings with His ancient people because of their sins (the explanation of their long dispersion), together with the impartial judgment of God, as seen in His rejection of Christendom because of unfaithfulness to the truth and ultimate apostasy, will have such an effect on the peoples, outside of Christendom, that the apostle is led to characterize it as "life from the dead." Does not this bring to mind the call of Abraham, considered as a rescue from idolatry (Josh. 24 :2, 3), and the birth of Isaac from the dead womb of Sarah, from whom was to come a multitude as numerous as the sand upon the seashore ? " Life from the dead "-how expressive of God's power displayed in grace!

"For if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy." This is an evident allusion to the first-fruits of their dough, which the children of Israel were to offer to Jehovah (Num. 15 :20, 21). Abraham, the first fruit; the nation, the lump, holy, or set apart to God.

Passing from this figure (possessing the principle necessary to his illustration) the apostle transfers the figure, with its principle, to that which is more suited to the immediate purpose on hand – the figure of a tree and its branches. If Abraham was set apart to God, so likewise was the nation. And since the "gifts and calling of God are without repentance," the place of earthly nearness to God and of national pre-eminence must ultimately be the portion of Israel ; this the apostle goes on to show.

Addressing himself to the Gentiles, he says :"And if some of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, were graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou barest not the root, but the root thee." Abraham the root, the nation the branches of the good olive tree:for it was in Abraham the Spirit of God manifested His light and leading, aud the nation was the sphere of the Spirit's activities in Old Testament times. The olive tree, from which the oil comes, which is a type of the Spirit of God, seems to be the suited figure to set forth the sphere of His actings. The Gentile having been brought into, and having characteristically become the sphere of the Spirit's gracious activities, is warned against boasting; but if he does, the apostle points to the breaking off of the branches, and he is told why they were broken off-"Because of unbelief." "Thou standest by faith; be not high-minded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural branches "-those by nature descended from Abraham – "take heed lest He spare not thee." The question here is that of corporate, or national, light and privilege, not of life or of individual faith-light which must be walked in, and privilege which must not be abused.

So long as Israel was characterized by faith, or so long as there was hope of their being called back to this, they maintained their place of national pre-eminence. But when even the remnant of Judah ceased to be so characterized, and were beyond hope of recovery to that state, God gave them up to judgment and to dispersion.

The Jew was given up to hardness of heart because of unfaithfulness to the truth, which led him further and further away from God, and deeper and deeper into religious conceit, until, when at the height of his self-righteousness, he crucified the Christ of God, in whom was his only hope. The beseeches of Christ, and, after the cross, the pleadings of His ambassadors, fell alike on ears that were deaf, until it fulfilled the Lord's own parable :"A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy until I come. But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying. We will not have this man to reign over us" (Luke 19 :12-14); for when Stephen bore this testimony to them, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God " (Acts 7 :56), " they gnashed on him with their teeth," and sent him to heaven as messenger to the "nobleman in the far country," to say unto Him, We will not have thee to reign over us.

Up to this point in their history, the Jews had evidently an offer of national restoration, as in Acts 3:19-21, if as a nation they had repented. Their rejection of Christ was put on the ground of ignorance (Acts 3 :17) ; but now the repeated pleadings of the apostles, bringing out more fully the deep-rooted enmity to all that was of grace, and so to all that was of God through Christ, they were definitively given up by God as a nation. For the wilful murderer there is no city of refuge. In this connection, Heb. 6:4-9 is very instructive. Those there addressed, after having received enlightenment as to Christ, and having been brought into the sphere of the Spirit's operations, had turned away from it all and gone back to Judaism, thus taking themselves off the ground of ignorance, and so "crucified to themselves the Son of God," putting Him to an open shame.

Prior to their profession of Christ, they had been implicated in the guilt of His national rejection; but now, having had the evidence of grace and of the moral power of the word of God and of the miracles wrought in the power of the Holy Spirit, in turning back to Judaism they put their own hand as it were to the crucifying of the Son of God, and set His claim to the Messiahship as false. It is impossible to renew such to repentance, for there is no city of refuge for the wilful man-slayer.

Applying this principle nationally, it is interesting to notice the ordinance of the cities of refuge in their dispensational teaching, as bearing on our present study. First of all, the gravity of wilful murder lies in the fact that man is made in the image of God (Gen. 9 :6). How awful then is the murder of Him who is the image of God, and who is in His moral attributes, the express image of His substance ! How could there be forgiveness for those who, after all the evidence which the patient goodness of God could supply had been given to them, in proof of the claims of Him whom they had crucified, still refused those claims, and by going back to Judaism , justified themselves in His crucifixion ?

Where was there ground of appeal to those who denied the voice of Moses and the prophets ?-who refused the Son of God accompanied as His message was with every sign of grace and power ?- who resisted the wondrous signs of the blessed Spirit of God manifested at Pentecost, and throughout the succeeding days by the instrumentality of the apostles ? There was no city of refuge for such. There could be no hiding-place in Christ for those who denied that Jesus was He. But when "the fulness of the Gentiles be come in," when the last of the Gentiles shall have been brought to God in this present age, and the present testimony to Christ shall have ceased, then will Israel be again on the ground of ignorance, and God will plead with them ; and at the appearing of Christ, with the change in the priesthood for Israel, they will be set free from the avenger of blood.

But if God has so dealt with Israel for their sins, if He has broken off these "natural branches," because of their unbelief, what shall He say to the " wild olive branches," who had in grace and mercy been grafted in the good olive tree ? The Gentile tenure of office, as was the Jewish, was conditioned on continuance in faith; but heedless of the apostle's warning, he became " wise in his own conceits" and lost the "fear of God," and, like the Jew, took the place of earthly blessing and national supremacy as the entitlement of his own merit. His language betrayed him as a stranger to God in heart:"I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." The sentence upon him is:" Thou also shalt be cut off." The Gentile cut off, because of unbelief; Israel graffed in again, because of a return to faith-how impartial are the ways of God!

"All Israel shall be saved." To understand this phrase, as here used, we must go back to the apostle's statement:" They are not all Israel who are of Israel" (chap. 9 :6). "The Deliverer" has "come out of Zion, and turned away ungodliness from Jacob." "Jacob," the suppliant, becomes "Israel;" whilst the mass, Esau-like, in independence and forgetfulness of God, go on to judgment. "Israel "shall come into her inheritance. The land, long defiled with blood, shall be cleansed-cleansed too by the Lord Jesus Himself, coming in judgment upon those who had defiled it by the murder of Himself. "So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye dwell :for blood it defileth the land :and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it" (Num. 35 :33). If the blood of Abel cried from the ground, how much more the blood of Christ, against its apostate despisers.

It is a striking fact that, whilst in the ways of God it may suffice to use the armies of the "Beast" to pour out His judgment upon the ecclesiastical system which had corrupted the truth during this present age (Rev. 17 :16, 17), to the defilers of the land by blood (the proud Roman and the apostate Jew), the judgment is meted out by His own hand in the land whereon His blood was shed. " For the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it" (Rev. 19 :19-21; Num. 35 :33).

But of Israel it is written :"And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem." " And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord:for they shall all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more" (Isa. 4:3; Jer. 31:34). These are the "children of the promise," and they are "counted for the seed." " For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as indeed ye [also] once have not believed in God, but now have been objects of mercy through the unbelief of these, so these also have now not believed in your mercy, in order that they also may be made objects of mercy. For God hath shut up together all in unbelief, in order that He might show mercy to all" (chap, 11:29-32, J. N. D.'s Trans.).

This, then, was the gracious purpose of God, to bring men, Jew and Gentile, to the knowledge that mercy was their only hope; to shut them up in unbelief with its debasing influences and its awful consequences, to bring them to the position of suppliants for mercy, that they might learn that righteousness is the product of Life; and that the creature, to abide in faith, must be born of God and divinely kept.

"Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God." Who could have divined that God, by giving them to eat of the fruit of their ways, and filling them with their own devices, was bringing the idolatrous Gentile to the knowledge of his sins, bringing him thus to the recognition of the need of mercy? Nor does the Jew to-day conceive that God is by the same process bringing him to the confession of his guilt, and to the sense of his need of mercy. Truly, God is no respecter of persons. How unsearchable are His ways ! They are the ways of Wisdom :ways which shall yet in the complete web of time approve themselves as the Urim and Thummim of God, in perfect wisdom lighting up the whole blighted track of man's shameful history with the sweet purposes of divine love-ways in which the "children of light " may find Him who is Light and Love; of whom, as the Source, through whom, as the Director of agency, and for whom, as their ultimate purpose and justification, are all things. To whom be glory now and forever. Amen ! G. MacKenzie.

Like the first rays of the rising sun after a long dark night, Matthew introduces the One promised of old in fulfilment of the prophecies that had gone before-prophecies which became clearer and brighter as one after another they pointed to Him whom Matthew presents.

Malachi had portrayed a gloomy state and condition in Israel at the time he penned his short prophecy, but he does not close without leaving a bright ray of hope for "those who feared the Lord and that thought upon His name." They are told,"Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings." He evidently speaks, not only for that particular company of his day, but for the godly remnant in Israel which should be found waiting at the time of His appearing. In the four hundred years that intervened, God had never left Himself without a witness, dark as those years had been. Simeon and Anna who were in the temple when the child Jesus was brought in, were of the God-fearing few who believed the promises to the fathers; they ''waited for the consolation of Israel" (Luke 2:25).

Joseph and Mary also, of whom we read in the first chapter of our Gospel, were of like precious faith; and in the sovereign choice of God, Mary was the one of whom Jesus should be born. Both were descendants of David; Joseph, whose genealogy we have in Matthew i, descended from Solomon the son of David; while Mary, whose genealogy Luke gives,* was descended from Nathan, another son of David. *Jacob was Joseph's own father. " Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ" (Matt. 1:16). Heli was Joseph's father-in-law, 1:e., Mary's own father (Luke 3 :23).* Both their progenitors, Nathan and Solomon, were the sons of Bathsheba, and both were born in Jerusalem (i Chron. 3:5). Jesus was born at Bethlehem, and had indisputable title to the throne of David. (The genealogies given in Matthew and Luke clearly prove Jesus' title to the throne of David-which no Jew could do since the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and their consequent dispersion in the world; all their genealogical records then came to an end. Ed.) This the leaders in Israel could have doubtless ascertained had they been inclined to do so. He is the One of whom the prophets had written, upon whose shoulder the government was to rest; whose name was to be called, "Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Father of Eternity, the Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6), for the virgin's Son was " Immanuel-God with us."

In entering upon His public service, ..He was approved of God at His baptism, foiled the devil in His temptations, announced His coming kingdom, and gave, in what is called the "Sermon on the Mount " (chs. 5-7) the principles which will characterize that kingdom when it is finally set up; we may call it the Magna Charta or Constitution of the kingdom. Then follows the official presentation of it to the nation, accompanied by its credentials of miracles and healings. Accordingly, Jesus calls His twelve disciples and sends them forth, not to the Gentiles, but to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel." The burden of their preaching was to be, " The kingdom of heaven is at hand " (ch. 10).

Their testimony, as that of their Master, is rejected, and in chapter n we read, " Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not" (ver. 20); while in chapter 12 we find the leaders of the people going so far as to attribute these mighty works to Satan-an unpardonable sin. In the end of the chapter He disowns the natural relationships (vers. 46-50), and leaving the house goes to the sea-side-significant of turning from Israel to the Gentiles. There He propounds seven parables of the kingdom.
The events from chapters 8 to 12 having made clear that Israel rejected Him as their Messiah and King, the kingdom is necessarily deferred until the time when they shall receive Him, and the present parenthetical period in which we live is running its course. During this time the word of the gospel was to go forth, and the first parable-that of the Sower-shows how the power of the devil, the flesh, and the world hinder the fruitfulness of the good seed.

The second parable (13:24-30) shows the enemy has gone further than merely to hinder the fruit-fulness of the good seed; he has sown bad seed, " tares among the wheat."This would include all the evil doctrines that afflict Christendom up to the present time, such as attack the person and work of Christ in some subtle way, or seek to undermine faith in the Scriptures as a revelation from God.

The third parable(vers. 31, 32) shows how the kingdom has become corrupted, and evil finds a lodging place in it:the world having gained entrance in all manner of ways, and practically taken possession of that which should have maintained a separate testimony for God-as the third Assembly in Rev., chap, 2, Pergamos, marks what professed to be the house of God in alliance with the world.

The fourth parable (ver.33) shows how the woman, like Jezebel in the fourth assembly of Rev. 2; 18, has corrupted that which is of God by introducing the leaven (which is always a type of evil) until finally the whole becomes leavened.

In the last three parables (vers. 44-50), we have, first, the "treasure hidden in the field." This represents the nation of Israel for whose redemption the purchase-price has been paid. "The field is the world." The divine Purchaser has bought it, and with it the treasure hidden there. "Ye shall
be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people" (Exod. 19:5). "The Lord hath chosen Jacob unto Himself, and Israel for His peculiar treasure" (Ps. 135:4). When Christ came, He found that part of the nation that had returned from the Babylonish captivity, under the Roman yoke; while the ten tribes were in a way lost among the nations, and will be until "there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob":" so all Israel shall be saved" (Rom. 11 :26).

There has been much erroneous teaching as to the "pearl of great price ;" some making Christ the pearl, and the sinner the merchantman seeking for Christ. It is rather that Christ is the seeker; and viewed in this light all becomes plain. The merchantman is Christ, and the "pearl of great price " is the Church, to purchase which our Lord laid aside the form of God, took the form of a servant, and laid down His life for our redemption. The Church is now being gathered from among the Gentiles (Acts 15:14), while the false profession is going on at an ever increasing pace toward apostasy and open rebellion against God (2 Thess., ch. 2).

When the Church is complete and caught up to heaven (i Thess. 4:15-18),a new testimony will go out to all the world, which the parable of the " net cast into the sea" represents. This is called the "Gospel of the kingdom" (Matt. 24:14); it was preached by John the Baptist, and by Jesus and His disciples while announcing the kingdom to Israel. This kingdom has been deferred because of the rejection of the King; it shall be published throughout the world, however, and multitudes out of the nations will receive it and be spared for blessing in Christ's kingdom on the earth. The "net" gathers of every kind, good and bad, true and false. The separation takes place at the appearing of Christ when the nations shall be gathered before Him (ch. 25:31-46). This time is called "the end of the age," and is the subject of chs. 24 and 25 of Matthew. While this " gospel of the kingdom" is proclaimed to the world at large, Palestine and Jerusalem will be passing through great and increasing troubles. The armies of the nations will be gathered there, and the great battle of Armageddon will be fought (Joel 3:9-16; Zech. 14:2, 3).The resurrection of Israel to a national existence after nineteen centuries of deadness is what the prophet Ezekiel foretells in his wonderful prophecy of the dry bones (ch. 37), and this resurrection is now beginning to take place. God has given them power in the lands of their exile to get wealth, and they will be brought back under Gentile protection, "their silver and their gold with them" (Isa. 60:9).Their aggressiveness has made them the objects of hatred and persecution in the centuries past, and when they have attained a national existence in their own land, the envy and hatred of the Gentile nations will again break out against them, and Palestine will become the world's greatest battlefield. This will be the "time of Jacob's trouble," the "great tribulation" of which the Lord speaks in Matt. 24:21-a time without a parallel in the world's history. Let those who dream of the disarmament of the nations and the world's speedy conversion by the preaching of the gospel consider what the Scripture of Truth reveals as to the future.

In the moment of their greatest crisis the Lord will suddenly appear from heaven, to the astonishment and dismay of the armies of the nations gathered against Jerusalem (ch. 24:29, 30). He will deliver the remnant of Israel that is left, and establish His kingdom which at His first coming had been presented, but refused. After His appearing the whole nation of Israel will be summoned to return to the land of their fathers (Matt. 24:31; Isa. ii:12).

The kingdoms of Judah and Israel, divided since the death of Solomon, will be reunited (Ezek. 37:15-28). The temple, which Ezekiel describes in the last chapters of his prophecy, will be rebuilt, and Christ shall reign, first in Davidic character, subduing His enemies; and then as "King of Peace," typified in Solomon.

By His death in atonement for sins, Christ laid the righteous foundation upon which the future blessing of Israel and of the earth depend. The prophets who foretold the advent of a glorious, reigning Messiah-king, prophesied also of a suffering, bleeding, dying Saviour. That which the blood of bulls and goats of Jewish sacrifices could not do, He by the sacrifice of Himself has accomplished. The One who has fulfilled the Scriptures speaking of His death will as surely fulfil the prophecies concerning His coming power and glory. Happy they, who in confession of their sinful and ruined state, yield themselves now to Him before whom every knee must bow, "and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." R. B. Eames

(Continued from page 99)

3.God's Character Vindicated (chap. 34).

Having paused for Job's reply, Elihu now continues his plea. The main theme of the present chapter is the vindication of God's character from the aspersions of Job. Impliedly, if not in so many words, Job had charged God with injustice. This is the main concern with Elihu. He is not taken up with reasonings as to heinous crimes attributed to Job by the friends; he indulges in no surmisings, insinuations or vituperations. His appeal is to man's reason; he states his facts, draws attention to the necessary recognition of God's character, which he vindicates from several points of view, and concludes this portion with the deliberate, yet gracious exhortation that Job should take the place of the lowly learner, in order that he may profit by his chastening. Having failed thus far to take such a place, there is nothing left but that Job should be further tried until he has learned his lesson. It is a most temperate and admirable treatment of his subject, and resembles the method of the friends only outwardly, if at all. The appeal to reason, coupled with the self-evident truth as to the nature of God, leads to the weighty conclusion that/0£ is the wrongdoer, not God. And this wrong is proven from the lips of the sufferer and from his attitude toward God.

We may divide the address into four main parts, the third of these being again subdivided, as indicated by its subjects.

(1) The appeal to wise men (vers. 1-4).

(2) Job's charge of injustice against God (vers. 5-9).

(3) The charge refuted (vers. 10-30).

(4) Job needs further testing (vers. 31-37).

(1) Elihu is not addressing the three friends as "wise men," nor any special individuals, apparently. It has been thought that he is speaking to the audience that had gathered round to listen to the controversy, which may be true, but the expression seems to be a general appeal to the judgment of the wise everywhere and for all time. Elihu is dealing with principles of universal application, the immediate occasion for their utterance being the examination of Job's attitude.

Quoting Job's own words (chap. 12:n), which seem to be in the form of a proverb, he reminds his hearers that the ear is the avenue for the reception and testing of words as the mouth is for food. Let them therefore accompany him in his search into the truth or falsity of Job's charges. Thus our Lord appealed to His hearers, "Why of your own selves judge ye not that which is right?" and the apostle says, "I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say."

(2) As already noticed, Elihu deals fairly with Job's statements. He either quotes his words, or gives their substance, or draws manifest conclusions from them. Job had time and again declared he was righteous, or guiltless (so chap. 10:7). This is the whole burden of his complaint against God. He had declared that God had taken away his judgment (chap. 27:2), and that, being innocent, if he confessed sin he would be a liar; that his wound is incurable, in spite of his being without transgression (chs. 23:2; 30:23, etc.).

Elihu likens such statements to the conduct of the wicked, into whose company Job, by his assertions, was putting himself. He was drinking up scorning like water (see ch. 15:16). For surely if we lose faith in God's righteousness, what is left ? This is walking " in the counsel of the ungodly," far more dangerous than outward forms of evil. The effect of such teaching is that there is no profit in seeking to please God, or have fellowship with Him. What a monstrous charge to fall from the lips of one who was a child of God! We can be thankful that Job's faith did not fail in spite of this cloud of unbelief; but Elihu in faithfulness must put the point of the knife upon the festering sore, more serious than his bodily ailments. How differently spoke our blessed Lord in His path of loneliness :"The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places" (Ps. 16:6); and who, in His darkest hour, justifies God's ways, saying, "But Thou art holy" (Ps. 22:3).

(3) Elihu now refutes these implied and direct charges against God. He will vindicate His character, and while appealing to wisdom, he gives no uncertain sound, " Let God be true, but every man a liar" (Rom. 3:4). He goes into the case with fulness, and we may note the various parts of his refutation. God is righteous:

(a) Because He is God (vers. 10-12).

(b) Because of His beneficent care (vers. 13-15).

(c) Because of His greatness (vers. 16-20).

(d) Because of His omniscience (vers. 21-25).

(e) Because of His judgment (vers. 26-30).

(a) The very fact that God is, denies that He is unrighteous. The absolutely Perfect One could not think or do evil. So James declares, "God cannot be tempted with evil" (ch. i:13). Let us mark well this method of reasoning. It turns from all second causes, from the difficult problems and dark enigmas in the world to Him who is light. It finds its rest in God; blessed rest. " Far be it from God to do evil." " God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (i John i:5). The Almighty- the Omnipotent-can do everything, but "He can not lie." " He cannot deny Himself." This insures perfect, even justice in His dealings with men; He will recompense man's own work to him, and He will cause him to find the results of his own ways. This does not mean that Job's friends are in the right as to their charges, but that God is dealing in absolute justice with Job, causing him to learn his needed lessons. How could God act wickedly or pervert the right ? He would not be God if this were possible. The answer is most convincing.

(b) Let Job look at God's providential care over His creation. It is His own, and not something committed to Him by another. Suppose, instead of remembering the need of His dependent creation, He were to turn His heart only to Himself. He is absolutely self-sufficient. He needs nothing from without. In all the past of eternity, God-Father, Son and Spirit-found sufficient delight in the Divine circle. Suppose, says Elihu, He were to turn back into that Divine Sufficiency, and set His heart-not upon man, as in our version, but upon Himself-what would become of His creation? "All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again to dust" (ver. 15). "Thou takest away their breath, they die " (Ps. 104:29). '' The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works." So the apostle Peter tells the saints in the midst of suffering to "commit the keeping of their souls unto Him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator" (i Pet. 4 :19). How good it is to remember that the One who "upholdeth all things by the word of His power," is also our Saviour, Lord and Friend.

(c) In this portion Elihu reminds Job of the dignity and greatness of God. If it is wrong to question the uprightness of a king, to call him Belial, who will dare to charge the All-just with evil ? He looks upon princes and paupers alike, and all are the work of His hands. Their life hangs upon His will, in a moment He can cut them off-will we think of such an One as fickle, uncertain or unfair? The heathen indeed represented thus their deities, but for those who know the true God, how impossible it is to have such thoughts.

(d) Similarly, He is Judge-the all-seeing One, from whom no secret can be hid. Of Him the psalmist wrote, "Thou hast searched me and known me" (Ps. 139). His eye is upon every step of man; evil cannot hide itself from Him. He does not need to study a man's ways, but at a glance, as it were, knows him and enters into judgment with him. (Such is the meaning of ver. 23, rather than that of our version.) Similarly, in ver. 24, there is no need for "investigation" to determine the overthrow of evil men. He seeth through their works and brings upon them their crushing doom. How can we think of such an One, whose all-seeing eye pierces to the innermost recesses of the heart, being Himself in need of judgment ?

(e) Lastly, Elihu with few words reminds his hearers of God's actual judgments; He smites evildoers who depart from Him; He remembers the cause of the poor and needy. So too, if He acquit, give quietness, who can condemn ? " It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth ?" (Rom. 8:33, 34). If He hides His face, who can look upon Him, whether He deal thus with a simple individual, or with mankind in general ? He puts down evil men that the people be not ensnared by them.

Thus Elihu rapidly covers the ground. He does not judge according to the sight of his eyes, but drawing all his thoughts from God whom he knows, makes clear to every upright mind the correctness of his conclusions.

(4) This brings us to the conclusion of this part of his address. If Job has thus unfairly charged God, he has a most important lesson to learn. What is fitting for one in his position ?-Bold assertion of
self-righteousness, and accusations of God, or the humble acknowledgment of his wrong in harboring such thoughts?-with the prayer, " That which I see not, teach Thou me:if I have done iniquity, I will do no more" (ver. 32).

Had Job done this? A glance at the controversy and at Job's monologue shows the contrary. Job had found fault with God's judgments because they were not according to his shortsighted expectations. It was Job therefore who was choosing his own affliction, not Elihu, who longs to have him declare it, and clear himself. He appeals to the men of understanding again. Will not all unite with him in saying, "Job hath spoken without knowledge, and his words are without wisdom." Can we not fully agree with this conclusion ?

Thus faithfully Elihu expresses the desire that Job may be tested to the end, until his answers like evil men, be judged by him. He has been withstanding God, and boldly defied Him.

Elihu's desire is to be granted, and Job will, ere long, repudiate his false charges of God as completely as Elihu does here. S. R.

(To be continued.)

I have been "bought with a price"-
A price no pen can compute;
The wondrous grace of the Buyer
Forbids my soul to be mute.
Redemption, the price of my pardon,
Unties the string of my tongue-
The praise of my gracious Redeemer
By me shall ever be sung.

I have been "bought with a price"-
Th' Eternal was willing to die,
That I a poor worm of the dust
Might share His glory on high.'
Oh, wonder of wonders that He,
The Creator of heaven and earth,
Should assume the form of a servant-
Like sinful mortals have birth!

And He in that body so holy,
Bore all of my sins on the tree;
He paid what I never could pay,
And made me eternally free.
Not all the angels in heaven
Could do what my Saviour has done-
Erase my countless transgressions
And make me an heir and a son.

And now, with the joy of forgiveness,
How precious the truth He makes known;
He gives me the joy and the sweetness
Of knowing I'm ever His own.
Not all the legions of darkness
That run at Apollyon's command,
Can shatter my fortress of safety,
Or loosen the grip of His hand.

He opens up vistas of glory
And shows me His mansions of light;
I pant to be off to His presence-
Away from the curse and the blight;
But if He desires me to stay in
The vale where He suffered and died,
I'll joyfully sound His salvation
Till I share in the joys of the Bride.
How precious the thought of His coming!
The bliss of His presence to know,
To see Him, and hear Him, and worship,
While ages unendingly flow!
This hope is my solace in sorrow,
It smooths the rough pathway of life,
It gilds all the darkness with brightness,
Gives peace in the fiercest of strife.

The storm-clouds o'er nations that thicken,
The woe that is followed by woe,
But brighten His rainbow of praise-
Give this hope greater luster and glow.
The voices that echo His coming
Ring out o'er the sea and the land,
The omens that gleam on earth's dial
Proclaim that my Lord is at hand.

Then, come! blesssed Lord; call away
The blood-purchased Bride of Thy heart.
No longer delay, but speak Thou the word
That bids her from earth to depart.
Thy joy and her joy will then be complete,
While measureless ages roll by;
She'll then seethe infinite measure of love
That brought Thee from glory to die!

C. C. Crowston

Justification by faith-the cardinal truth recovered at the Reformation through the instrumentality of Luther-must be known if the conscience is to be at rest in the presence of God, and the heart know the blessedness of being brought to God.

Job's question, " How should man be justified before God ?"-which had for long remained unanswered-is righteously settled and answered in the epistle to the Romans. An infinite distance lay between a thrice holy God and the lost sinner, and the law, holy, just and good, could only condemn, and by no means clear the guilty. For centuries God gave man every opportunity to prove himself worthy of eternal life, but after a long time of testing under law, man was no nearer God than at the beginning; indeed we have only to read the first two chapters of Romans to see how incapable man was to produce a righteousness acceptable to God; but, on the contrary, proved himself as under the power of sin. Job -realized the need of a mediator-the need of one great enough to place one hand upon the divine throne, and the other upon the condemned sinner, and reconcile him to God."Neither is there any daysman," says Job, "betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both" (Job 9:33).

But God has found a daysman in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ; and through His death and resurrection, a righteous ground has been found for God's dealings in grace with repenting sinners. Through Christ, God can be just and yet justify the one who, acknowledging his sins, believes in Jesus.

That justification is more than forgiveness, a simple illustration will help us to understand:

A prisoner is before judge and jury. Witnesses are called, and his guilt is fully demonstrated. The jury hands in their finding, "guilty," and the judge forthwith gives his verdict, sentencing the prisoner. Through the influence of friends, however, a petition is forwarded to the highest authority of the country, with the result that full pardon is granted.

The prisoner, thus pardoned, is liberated. But is he justified? Nay! he leaves the jail a forgiven transgressor, but all the courts of the world could not justify him! The stigma of his crime rests upon him while life lasts. But if another bears for him the full sentence, or pays his debt in full, then he goes out completely freed-justified. Now God would have a people before Him in fiill liberty and without blame, so that, manifestly, something more is needed than forgiveness.

It may help us to see, that in every recorded preaching by the disciples in the Acts, forgiveness of sins is the theme, while Paul in his preaching added the truth of "justification." (See Acts 13:38, 39.)

Keeping before us the fact that Paul received his commission from a glorified Christ, it will be readily seen that the last three verses of the 4th chapter of Romans are immensely important.

Justification by blood.

Here we have the ground, or righteous basis, of justification stated. God has set forth a propitiatory-Christ, made a mercy-seat by the shedding of His blood, for faith to draw near to God. This refers doubtless to the great day of atonement, when the foundation of God's relationship with Israel was laid for that year, but we have a risen Christ, as it is plainly declared in Rom. 4:25," Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." Christ delivered to death for our offences shows God's righteousness in clearing the guilty. It explains also how He could deal in grace with those who trusted in Him in Old Testament times (see Rom. 3:25, 26). His forbearance as to their sins was in view of a work yet to be accomplished-a work to which we look back.

Justification by faith.

This was no new principle, as the apostle proves in Rom., chap. 4, taking the case of Abraham to show how completely it was apart from works of the law -Abraham being justified before the tatv was given.

James, in his epistle (chap. 2:21), cites Abraham to prove that a man is justified by works ! Is there then a contradiction ? If not, why the difference ?

First let it be clearly seen that Paul is speaking of justification before God, He can discern faith; we cannot; therefore we find in Rom., chap. 4, that in speaking of Abraham's faith, it is linked with an entirely different incident than that to which James refers.

When was Abraham justified before God ? Gen. 15:5, 6 is the answer. "And he (Abram) believed in the Lord ,and He counted it to him for righteousness." God made an unconditional promise to Abram, and he believed God implicitly:and God justified, or accounted Abram righteous, on account of his faith. So with the believer to-day; the reception of God's testimony in the gospel, that He who died for our sins has been raised from the dead, links the soul with Christ where He is, beyond the reach of death and judgment, so that the full penalty of God's judgment having been borne, the believer is justified in Christ risen. Here, there can be no imputation of guilt; the soul is free, and God has become the justifier (Rom. 8:30). God imputes righteousness to the believer in Christ who is risen, so that the standing of the believer is unassailable.

Justification of life.

This expression, it will be noticed, occurs in the second part of the epistle (chaps. 5-12) and is connected with headship. Adam being presented as head of his race, constituted sinners by his disobedience. Christ is head of a new race, constituted righteous by His obedience-obedience unto death.

Right to live we had not; on account of sin death passed upon all men. But since the death-penalty has been met by Christ, and He has become head of a new creation, every believer has changed headship, and the life now possessed is life in resurrection with Christ. Brought into new creation, the believer's life is unassailable; no guilt can ever be attached to it.

Justification by works.

This phase of justification cannot be too strongly insisted upon in these days of so much empty profession; the truth pressed by James is no less important than that presented by Paul.

Wherein then lies the difference of view-point ? James is writing of justification before men, hence in speaking of Abraham he refers to the time when in obedience to the command of God, the patriarch took Isaac his son and bound him upon the altar. Hebrews n:19 links with it Abraham's faith in God as the God of resurrection, His faith had fully trusted God for the fulfilment of His promises, and that faith was evidenced by his act in offering up his son. So "faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect" (James 2:22).

The two go together, and where there is the reality of divine life it must be evidenced by a consistent godly life and obedience to God. Men do not gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles; a tree is known by its fruits, so that where the confession of Christ's name is made, the word of James applies, " I will show thee my faith by my works."

Faith justifies before God.
Works justifies before men.

J. W. H. N.

(Continued from page 278.)

The pride of self-righteousness, and the consequent blindness to the need of mercy from God was, no doubt, a principal factor in the Jew not having believed "Moses and the prophets." He was thus led astray, and incapacitated from receiving Jesus as the Christ, coming as He did with the message of God's mercy to sinners. The cry of the Pharisee was, "This people who knoweth not the law are cursed " (Jno. 7:49); whilst the voice of the Scripture is, "As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse " (Gal. 3:10). This incapacity to read aright their Scriptures led them to antagonize, with all the power of the Jew's ardent nature, even the idea of blessing from God reaching the Gentile otherwise than by becoming Jewish proselytes. That anything could be preached which offered Jew and Gentile a common salvation was utterly intolerable to the mind which had constituted itself the exclusive favorite of God.

The question raised in these chapters by the attitude of the Jew, is not that of equality of place in the "body of Christ, which is the Church of God," but of a common salvation, offered to Jew and Gentile alike, through faith in Jesus as Lord. The apostle shows that the Scriptures were quite plain as to the intention of God to bless the Gentiles. Beginning with a citation from Isa. 28 :16, " Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed." he argues (evidently from the breadth of the term, "Whosoever"), that "there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him." That this is a just inference he proceeds to show by citing Joel 2 :32, " For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." From this scripture he starts on a course of reasoning, from the conclusions of which there is no escape for the caviler:"Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

The salvation spoken of in Joel 2 :32 is deliverance from the hand of the enemy. But in Acts 2 :14-40, the apostle Peter, citing Joel's prophecy in verse 21, taken with verse 40, shows this salvation to be from this untoward (or perverse) generation. The prerequisite to "calling upon the name of the Lord " was that they should "repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." All who did repent under the preaching of Peter, did save themselves from that perverse generation, when God visited the land and destroyed Jerusalem with a terrible slaughter by the hand of the Romans- answering that terrible imprecation, "His blood be upon us," and fulfilling also the words of the Lord Jesus, "And He sent forth His armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city " (Matt. 22 :7).

In the coming day, the day of the actual fulfilment of Joel's prophecy, when, according to their wish, His blood shall be upon their children (Matt. 27 :25) in greater severity than ever before, there will be a repentant remnant who will "call upon the name of the Lord," and find deliverance from the enemy; while the mass, calling on the names of idols, will be given up to the terrible judgments of God. For, "calling on the name of the Lord" in these scriptures, is not, in its first intention, the cry of distress coming from a soul in the consciousness of its guilt; for while it is assuredly true that such a "call," or cry of distress, would meet its answer from a merciful God in the salvation of that soul from wrath, yet the "calling upon the name of the Lord" here is the habit of the life, as, for example, all that "call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours" (i Cor. i :2).

But if "Whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," and if "whosoever" embraces, as it does, both Jew and Gentile, there are some questions which the caviler must face:" How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed ? " What reason could they have for calling upon the name of the Lord if they had not come to know Him through faith ? And if the Gentile was "afar off," how could he "believe on Him of whom he had not heard?" And "How shall they hear without a preacher ?" And "How shall they preach except they be sent ?" Before they could call upon Him they must believe; before they could believe in Him, they must hear of Him; before they could hear there must be a preacher. But the law had no such preachers. "Moses" could not send them, and they surely could not be self-ordained. But God had fulfilled that gracious word:"How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things." He had sent preachers to proclaim this gospel of peace "to the Jew first," but he had sadly fulfilled the wail of the prophet:" Lord, who hath believed our report ? " This report of glad tidings of good things had not only gone unheeded by the mass of the nation, but was being bitterly opposed. Alas, Israel was a stranger to faith, and clung to "works of law." But, none the less, "Faith cometh by a report, and the report by God's word." (J. N. D.'s Trans.)

Here, then, is a "report" sent out for the acceptance of Israel :a "report " of glad tidings, and a "report" authorized of God. Faith is the acceptance of that report as the soul realizes the message to be from God. Israel then, as a nation, refused the "report." But if "there is no difference between the Jew and the Gentile," to the Greek will this "report" be preached. Had the "Greek" heard this report? "Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." If Creation's testimony is to all the world, shall Redemption's testimony be less large ? On the day of Pentecost, when there were gathered together at Jerusalem Jews and proselytes from every nation under heaven, all of them heard the gospel of peace and "glad tidings of good things." They heard " in their own tongue the wonderful works of God." Here, in principle at least, is the testimony of the glad tidings going out into all the world, carried by men of every nation under heaven to those among whom they dwelt.

Thus, at one stroke, the gospel may be said to have been preached in the whole creation (not, to every creature) which is under heaven (Col. i :23).

" But did not Israel know " that the Gentiles would hear the glad tidings ? " First, Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you." i Thess. 2 :13-16 is a striking commentary on the truth of this, as is the whole attitude of the Jew towards the gospel and towards those who preach it. But Isaiah is still more plain:" I was found of them that sought Me not; I was made manifest to them that asked not after Me." The Gentiles, who had not sought after Him, had been sought by Him through them that had brought the "report" of "glad tidings of good things," as it is written in i Thess. 2 :13 :"And for this cause we also give thanks to God unceasingly that, having received the word of the report of God by us, ye accepted, not men's word, but even as it is truly, God's word, which also works in you who believe." (J. N. D.'s Trans.) ' 'But to Israel He saith:All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." What a sight! God, with hands outstretched in beseeching of Israel, and they despising the wooing of His love and mercy! What a spectacle for heaven to look down upon that day in Antioch in Pisidia-the Jews fighting against the mercy of God! "And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming" (Acts 13:44, 45).

God, then, had been found of a people that had not sought after Him, whilst Israel, sullen and angry, refused the embrace of His outstretched arms. Did this mean that God " had cast away His people whom He foreknew ? " "Far be the thought." There was nothing in all their sad history but what had beforehand been "opened unto the eyes of Him with whom they had to do." Not only had He foreknown, but He had also foretold their history. Their changeful hearts, faithless and untrue to Him, could not touch the unchangefulness of Jehovah, nor thwart the purposes of His grace. As in the time of Elijah, when things were so dark in Israel that, getting under the power of the times, he makes intercession to God against Israel (how unlike the apostle of grace praying for them), complaining that he was left alone, he receives the divine answer:"I have reserved to Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal;" "Even so, then, at this present time also, there is a remnant according to the election of grace." So then, if by grace, works are excluded -for grace and works cannot go together for salvation. This remnant of Israel, in which the link of continuity with God was found, a continuity conditioned on faith, was reserved by God for Himself in sovereign grace. The Abrahamic covenant, unburdened by conditions of any kind, left God free to display Himself according to that in which He delights-in grace. The law, given by Moses, four hundred and thirty years after God's covenant with Abraham, could not impose its burdens upon it, but rather could and did show the need of that covenant of unconditional promise, which covenant could only be righteously secured in Christ, through His sacrifice.

"What then ? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for." Why ? Because he "sought it not by faith, but by the works of the law " (chap. 9 :32). "But the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded." This terrible calamity to the mass had been foretold:" God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this day."

These citations are evidently from Isa. 6:10; 29:10.Taken with their context, they tell a sad story as to Israel. In chap. 6 Isaiah sees a vision of the glory of Jesus (see Jno. 12 :37-41)-a vision which awoke him to the uncleanness of lip both of himself and of the people :his confession of this brought the coal of sacrifice and made his mouth fit to speak for Jehovah. But he is given a message of judgment, and he who pronounces judgment upon others must himself be clean. But in the midst of awful judgments upon the mass of the people, there shall be a tenth left to return to the land, and in the midst of this remnant shall the holy Seed be found-the remnant according to the election of grace (Isa. 6 :13). Again, " David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense unto them:let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway." This awful passage is in answer to the mockings of the people as they mocked the Son of God, whilst hanging upon the cross (Ps. 69:21-23). G. MacKenzie.

(Concluded in next number).
1 JOHN 3:1-3

"My Gad shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory toy Christ Jesus,"

"Friend, dost thou in thine inmost heart believe this word ?
Then trust-yea, wholly trust thy loving Lord;
Trust Him each day, each hour, and thou shalt
see
Each need supplied, God's riches in Christ for
thee.

The justification spoken of in James is of the believer. It has been often taken as if it were to modify, in some respects, the doctrine which Paul has already proclaimed. But justification with James is not the justification of the ungodly. It is the justification of the professed believer, which of necessity is by those works which, if faith has not, it is "dead, being alone"-having no life, no reality, in it. Thus his justification is not before God, as Paul's is; and Paul leaves evident room for that which James speaks of."If Abraham were justified by works," says Paul,"he hath whereof to glory, but not before God."Thus, he does not deny that Abraham was justified by works, while he does absolutely deny that he was justified by works before God.

When the professed believer is justified by his works, that is not at all needful for God, who knows absolutely the reality or the unreality. For man it is; and that is how James puts it:"A man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works; show me thy faith without thy works" (that is clearly impossible), " and I will show thee my faith by my works." Thus the fruits of faith which are here in question are by no means only morality. Abraham offers up his son. Rahab, as men would say, betrays her country; but both of these own a higher allegiance than that to men; and they are the witnesses thus,
of the epistle is according to the second place- which in fact it should have among the Catholic Epistles-that of testimony.

Abraham was justified by faith, when, alone with God under the stars of heaven, he was pointed to those witnesses of God's promise to him:he simply believed, and "it was counted to him for righteousness." But when James appeals to his justification by works, it was to what men saw when he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar. "See how faith wrought with his works," he says:

The testing of this in some places may seem minute, and that is the perfection of it. He says, If you put the poor man in a poor place in your synagogue, how can you claim that you have recognized the true glory of the Lord of glory- whom you would have put in the same place if you had judged Him in the same way ? The question is one of faith; and where does faith see poverty or riches ?

Another characteristic of James connected with this is "patience." That is the fruit of faith distinctly, or, perhaps we may say of hope, which is but faith looking forward. It is what the trial of faith works, and therefore blessed is he who endureth the trial. If only patience have "her perfect work," we are "perfect and entire, wanting in nothing." Then the Word governs the soul-it is the mirror in which we are to see ourselves. The general drift in James' epistle thus agrees thoroughly with its numerical place. F. W. G.

(Matt. 17 :1-8.)

The transfiguration scene, with its varied im-_L ports, forms a blessed theme for the renewed mind's meditation. The apostle Peter tells us that it was an expression of the majesty of the Lord Jesus in His kingdom (2 Pet. i :16-18). In "His face did shine as the sun," we have an expression of supreme authority exercised in power for blessing; "His raiment was white as the light," expresses His intrinsic holiness manifested in outward life.

But with Him were Moses and Elias. Moses is the exponent of the law's requirements; Elias is the prophet of judgment on the disciples of Moses, because of their failure and apostasy. But Moses -the law-is glorified in the Lord Jesus; for, while the law could only bring forth from our Lord a moral perfection beyond all the law's demands, He upholds the justice of its penalty and honors its authority.

Elias too is glorified in Him and justified in the judgment he brought upon a guilty people.

Both Moses and Elias are justified and glorified in their place and office by the sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross of Calvary.

Matthew and Mark tell us that Moses and Elias "talked with Him;" Luke tells us of what they spake-they "spake of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem." It was that "decease" which gave Moses and Elias title to be with Him in the glory.

Then Peter gives expression to the human heart in its stupid forgetfulness both of its corruption and of its deep need :" Let us make here three tabernacles," he says. He would give permanent place to Moses and Elias-the witnesses of his own guilt! But, "Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more" is the royal decree of the "throne of the majesty on high." The witness of Moses and Elias have been heard and approved as true at that throne, and the sentence has been passed-"All guilty before God." But, " He bore our sins in His own body on the tree." The witnesses have given their testimony; their work is done ; the sentence has been pronounced ; the judgment has been borne; and in holy exaltation the voice of God proclaims, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him." Then-glorious truth!-"They saw no man, save Jesus only."

We have been in bondage under Moses; we have trembled under Elias. Shall we not hear HIM now? "Come unto Me," He says, " and I will give you rest." " I am come that ye might have life." "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life."

"JESUS"-the Son of God come to make that name good to us in all its blessedness-the name given Him while yet in the Virgin's womb:"Thou shalt call His name JESUS; for He shall save His people from their sins! " My soul, consider Him!

JEHOVAH
ETERNAL
SAVIOR
UNTO
SINNERS.

Geo. MacKenzie

(A WARNING)

The difference between learning sin in God's presence, and by falling into it is very great. One may feel sin very deeply, because one has committed it, but this never gives one God's sense of what sin is. The cross of Christ is the measure of sin in the sight of God.

(Concluded.)

Now, let us see for a little what more is involved in this error at which we have been looking.

It involves the error of a divided Christ. The expression, " The Christ," includes, in such passages as i Cor. 12:12, not only Christ the Head, but also His body, the Church. If, at His coming, a part only of that body is taken and the other left, what becomes of the unity of this mystical body? (See i Cor. 12 :25.) And again, the Church, the body, composed of all believers, is Christ's bride. Will He have a bride with members lacking – a body incomplete, in heaven-some members in glory and glorious with Him above, and others on earth suffering in the great tribulation ? Is it not written, "Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it" (i Cor. 12:26)? How does this comport with the theory of a partial rapture ? Will the members caught up at the coming suffer in heaven with their fellow-members left behind on earth ?

Again, if the Holy Spirit (who now dwells in the Church as the temple of God) goes with the Church at the coming of Christ, that part of the Church left on earth would be no more God's temple or dwelling-place. But Eph. 4 :30 declares the members of Christ here on earth are by the Spirit "sealed unto (or till) the day of redemption." Does this agree with the thought of some of these sealed ones being left at His rapture-the day of redemption ? The seal is the mark, the sign, put by the owner upon the purchased possession until its removal by him to its settled abiding-place; and the believer, "bought with a price," is marked and set apart for God, "sealed unto the day of redemption." But if he is left at the rapture, the day of the body's redemption, how could this scripture be fulfilled in him ?

And yet further:will there be different classes of the people of God on earth in the tribulation- one, an earthly and Jewish remnant; the other, a portion of the Church on earth with a heavenly calling? And where is this left portion of the Church referred to in Revelation, or in any portion of the Scriptures treating of the tribulation ? What is their testimony, their place, their destiny, and will they ever again be joined to the Church, "which is His body?" The earthly saints, both Jew and Gentile, we can clearly see and trace, but this detached portion of the body, this left section of the Church, we nowhere find. Why ? Because they are not there ; they are all in glory:the bride, the Lamb's wife, is presented there to Himself "a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing " (Eph. 5:27)-nor any subtraction, nor any member missing, we might add.

Two scriptures are frequently referred to as supporting the belief in a partial rapture. One is the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25). Let us look at it. The whole company of the ten virgins represent the professing Church. The wise are the true believers; by the Holy Scriptures they have been made "wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2<ijTim. 3 :15). They have not only the lamp of profession, but they have oil in their vessels with their lamps. Oil, in Scripture, is the standing type of the Holy Spirit. And it is written, "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His " (Rom. 8 :9). And being Christ's, the wise are ready, and when the Bridegroom comes, they go in with Him to the marriage. The foolish virgins have the profession, but not the Spirit-they are not Christ's, not true children of God; mere professors they are, unconverted ones, having lamps but no oil, no Holy Spirit. So when the Bridegroom comes, they are unprepared and shut out-left without hope. "I know you not," the Bridegroom says. Could this be said of any saint, however unsatisfactory his state? No; for it is written again, "The Lord knoweth them that are His" (2 Tim. 2:19).

The other stock text is Heb. 9:28:" Unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Now, it is not our purpose here to go into the full meaning of this passage. A most cursory examination of the context would show that the inspired penman has before him the Old Testament figure of the Jewish high priest going into the holiest of the tabernacle, as he did once a year, to make atonement for Israel, while the expectant people waited without for his reappearance. So Christ, our great High Priest, has entered heaven itself, there "to appear in the presence of God for us." And in due time, like the earthly priest of old, He shall appear again to them . "that look for Him," and they "that look for Him" are all the people cf God. It does not say, nor does it mean, that He will appear only to them that intelligently wait for His coming, or to those who watchfully listen for His shout. No; for this would make the translation of a saint dependent, not upon his faith in Christ, or even on his devoted-ness to Him, but upon his knowledge-an idea which would deny the plain import of Scripture as a whole, and special passages in particular, as "knowledge puffeth up."

The fact is, every truly converted soul is looking for Christ-not all in the same way, nor yet with equal degree of intelligence or longing'. Some, through ignorance, look for Him at death; others expect to see Him coming at the end of the world; while others, again, have no fixed belief as to the occasion and time ; they only know that they love Him because He first loved them, and their heart would be made glad at the sight of His glorious face.

I remember, many years ago, hearing a devoted soul, a real "mother in Israel," tell of a dream she had concerning "the end of the world," as it had been taught her. The mighty thunders were crashing, the earth rending, stars falling, the heavens rolled back as a scroll, the fire was descending, and the graves opening, and the judgment about to sit ; and she awoke in her bed exclaiming in ecstacy, "Oh, I shall see Jesus!" Was she not "looking for Him ? " Yet how mixed up she was in it all. Like thousands of others of God's saints, she knew nothing at all of what is called "dispensational truth;" but like them and all who know and love the Saviour, she was looking for Him; and to them He shall appear as well as to us who by grace possess a little more knowledge of the order in which God's word has placed these different events. How mistaken, then, are they who would limit and narrow a passage of Scripture like this, and make it apply only to a small portion of the beloved and blood-bought saints of God!

We close our argument; not that we have said the last word on the subject; no, not by any means; for very much more might be said in refutation of this wide-spread error of a partial rapture. But enough has been said, we believe, to convince and satisfy any one willing to bow to Scripture, and it is for these that we write; for our aim has been more to help the perplexed, and guard those already instructed, than to convince the gainsayers.

It only remains for us, in closing, to exhort the Christian reader to be found of Him in peace, watching and waiting, with lamp trimmed and burning; with loins girded, "like unto men that wait for their Lord," that both reader and writer maybe "presented faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." "Let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober " (i Thess. 5:6). C. Knapp

(Luke 1:32.)

Oh glorious morn when Christ was born!
The angels voiced their notes of praise,
His star did heaven's dome adorn,
And shepherds caught the glory-blaze.
The Maker of all worlds came down
(In Bethlehem's lowly manger born)
To save a groaning, shackled race,
Whose glory had by sin been shorn.

The wise men came from lands afar
And opened up their treasured store;
They worshiped Him as King-elect
Whom angels praise for evermore.
Each nation has its leading men
On whom historic glories fall,
But destinies of worlds depend
Upon that CHILD in yonder stall.

C. C. Crowston

It is not Time that flies-
'Tis we, 'tis we are flying ;
It is not Life that dies-
'Tis we, 'tis we are dying.
Time and Eternity are one;
Time is Eternity begun.
Life changes, yet without decay-
'Tis we alone who pass away.

It is not Truth that flies-
'Tis we, 'tis we are flying;
It is not Faith that dies-
'Tis we, 'tis we are dying.
Oh ever-during Faith and Truth,
Whose youth is age, whose age is youth!
Twin stars of immortality,
Ye cannot perish from our sky.

It is not Hope that flies-
'Tis we, 'tis we are flying;
It is not Love that dies-
'Tis we, 'tis we are dying.
Twin streams that have in heaven your birth,
Ye glide in gentle joy through earth.
We fade like flowers beside you sown;
Ye are still flowing, flowing on.

Yet we do but die to live;
It is from death we're flying;
Forever lives our Life-
For us there is no dying.
We die but as the spring-bud dies,
In summer's golden glow to rise.
These be our days of April bloom;
Our summer is beyond the tomb.

Horatius Bonar

"Enoch walked with God"-Gen. 5:24.

This simple record seems like a strain of music from some heavenly world, rather than that of a man upon this troubled earth.

The position in which we find this record in the Bible is very significant. It belongs to a very olden time-about a thousand years before the flood. It follows a very monotonous statement of how one man after another was born, lived so many years, begot a son, lived so many more years, and died. Then Enoch is brought into the story, and the record begins in the same way, goes on, and seems about to end the same way as the others, when suddenly there comes this fresh breath from heaven. After that, the story goes right on again. Is there not something for us to learn to-day from this story of that olden time?

And, remember, it was not on a few rare occasions of spiritual exaltation, but for three hundred years, in this sinful world, living a family life as we do, that Enoch "walked with God." Then, one day, he was not, for God took him.

What does it mean, to walk with God ? It is to live in the consciousness of God's presence; in conscious companionship with God. To have with you, as you go about your daily affairs, the realization that God is with you, so that you may speak to Him and have Him speak to you; and sometimes be with Him in a silence that means more than talk. To walk with God is to have the consciousness of companionship with God.

What are the results ? First, abounding joy. The Psalmist says, "In Thy presence is fulness of joy." Do you think he was speaking entirely about the future ? I am sure he was not. Right here in our everyday life in His presence is fulness of joy.

One of the sweetest joys of earth is congenial companionship. Who would not rather live in a hut with congenial companions than in the palace of those with whom there is no congeniality ? Who would not rather live on a barren isle with real Christians, than in the fairest land with infidels, blasphemers, libertines, drunkards and robbers ? Is not one of the brightest hopes and gladdest joys of heaven the society of heaven-especially of the Father and Jesus Christ the Son ? Rutherford exclaimed, " I would rather dwell in hell with Thee than in heaven without Thee, for if I were in hell with Thee it would be heaven to me." If we have this conscious companionship with God in our present life we have two heavens; the future eternal heaven to which we are hastening, and the present one. Oh, the joy of sweet fellowship with God every day!

We know the joy of walking and talking and being with loved ones on earth. But that is nothing to the joy of walking with God and talking to Him and having Him speak to us. Fellowship with God is infinitely better, dearer and more glorious than any earthly companionship.

Remember, I said it was not in a few exalted moments and experiences only that Enoch walked with God, but in his daily life-for three hundred years; and we may walk with God in the same way.

The second result is a great sense of security and abiding peace. The same psalm says, " I have set the Lord always before me:because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." War may come, pestilence, famine, but if God be for us, and with us, who can be against us ? O friends, if we live in the power of that thought we shall have undisturbed peace, no matter how war increases, no matter how near it comes to our doors, we shall hear God saying, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee:be not dismayed; for I am thy God:I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. " " Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear:though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident." Is it any wonder the psalmist went on to say, "One thing have I desired of the lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the lord." The secret of abiding peace is conscious companionship with God.

The third result is spiritual enlightenment. The secret of having an open eye to, and understanding of, the truth is communion with God. Look at Enoch; there is no record that he was a great scholar (he certainly was not a "higher critic"), yet we are told in Jude that far away in that olden time, thousands of years before Christ, Enoch saw the truth of the Lord's second coming-probably the only man in his day. Why ? Because he walked with God. He had the spiritual enlightenment that comes from walking with God. If I went to anyone to learn something about the Word of God I would not inquire how much knowledge he had of philosophy or psychology:I would ask, Does he walk with God ? In the things of God, in the things that are eternal, the condition of wisdom and understanding is fellowship with God.

The next result of walking with God is purity of heart and life. So many things that we have tolerated become unthinkable when we see them in the true light of God's presence. So many things that are done under cover of night, would never be done if the thought that God is with us possessed the soul.

A man that had been given to profanity, found it very difficult to overcome it. He went to a godly minister for advice. "Charlie," said the minister, " would you swear if your father were with you ? " " I don't think I would," he answered. " Well, to-morrow when you go to work remember all the time that God is there with you." The next day, as he went about his work, that thought of God's presence was with him, and to his amazement, as he went home at night, he realized that he had been kept from this sin. How many things we do, say, or think, that we would not do, say, or think, if we lived in the consciousness of God's presence with us.

The next result, closely akin to this, is beauty of character. We become like the people we associate with. So if we associate with God we become like Him. When Moses came down from the mountain where he had been for forty days alone with God, his face shone. So if we habitually are with God, it will illumine and glorify our lives.

The next result is usefulness. It is the quiet, potent influence of a holy life that tells. Enoch wrought more for God by just walking with God, than Nebuchadnezzar who built the grand structures of Babylon, or the Egyptian monarch who built the pyramids and the sphinx to amaze and mystify coming generations. So today, the men and women who walk with God do more than the political reformers with all their fair-appearing schemes for transforming this world.

Yet there is another result of walking with God that is far better than all these; that is, that you please God. We read in Hebrews n, that Enoch had this testimony, that he was "well-pleasing" to God. God wants our service, but He wants our hearts more.

And, what is more, the eighth result is we shall spend eternity with Him. " Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." If we walk with God here, we will spend eternity with Him yonder.

What must we do if we are going to walk with God ? First, put our trust in the atoning death of Christ. In the passage about Enoch in the New Testament, it says, " By faith Enoch walked with God," and if you look at the verses immediately preceding .you will see that faith is rooted in the atonement. God is holy, you and I are sinners, there is that great chasm of sin between us, so there is no getting to Him, and of course no walking with Him until that chasm is bridged-and that chasm can be bridged in no way except by the atoning blood of Christ:"Without shedding of blood there is no remission."

If you were to be with God without having come under that atonement, the companionship would
not be joy but agony. Even the seraphim in the presence of God, with twain of their six wings cover their faces, and with twain their feet, and cry, " Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts." But if we take the testimony of this Book, our sins were laid on Christ on Calvary, and blotted out. He became sin on our behalf in order that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. So we can come into His presence and say, "Abba, Father." Some people are afraid of God. But the one Being in all the universe I will tell everything to is GOD. But if it were not for the atoning blood of Christ this could not be so.

Yet to have fellowship we must obey Him (Jno. 14:23).There must be full self-surrender. Selected

(Continued from page 152)

5. Elihu's closing Address-God's workings among Men and in Nature (chaps. 36, 37).

We come now to the close of Elihu's remarkable dealings with Job. He still has much to say, and still the theme is the same-he will speak for God. This supreme object to vindicate God from the aspersions of Job-in which the friends had failed so utterly-is the great characteristic of Elihu's address, and gives us the key to what he says. He acts as a mediator, an interpreter for men, a revealer of God. The typical resemblance to our Lord's work is manifest.

This closing part begins with a summing up along the lines already followed, but concludes with a description of the workings of God in nature, which for grandeur is incomparable. If in the beginning he speaks in simple didactic manner, addressing the judgment and the conscience, the close is so vivid that it has been well thought to be a description of an actual storm whose approach heralded the presence of God-a most fitting prelude to Jehovah's word from the whirlwind.

The address therefore may be divided into two parts, each subdivided according to the indicated progress of thought.

1.God's dealings among men (chap. 36 :1-21).

2. His ways in Nature (chaps. 36:22-37:24).

Though the division indicated is clear, there is a close connection between the two parts of the address, marking its unity.

I. We may at once give the outline of the first part, in which the ways of God with men are dwelt upon.

(1) Introductory (vers. 1-4).

(2) God's care over the righteous (vers. 5-7).

(3) The object of affliction (vers. 8-15).

(4) The application to Job (vers. 16-18).

(5) Exhortations (vers. 19-21).

(1) There is no invitation for Job to speak at the close of the previous part of the address; but Elihu presses on toward the close. Job is asked to permit him yet to speak for God; he will bring near the knowledge of Him who dwelleth afar. His constant aim is to vindicate Him, and in doing so, he will speak with a knowledge that is "perfect." This is no proud boast of personal attainment, but the solemn consciousness that he is speaking for God.
(2) In one word he sweeps away the unholy suspicions which had been harbored by Job-"God

is great, and despiseth not any." Infinite in power as He is, He looks with compassion upon the feeblest of His creatures. There are two infinities in which He is equally seen-the infinitely great, and the infinitely small. How comforting is the truth, "He despiseth not any!" His greatness is never the occasion for scorn. His wisdom is infinitely powerful, but never exerted against feebleness. He does not ignore sin-will not, eventually, preserve the life of the ungodly; but we maybe sure that He deals in perfect righteousness in all the afflictions He permits. The righteous are His special care; He withdraweth not His eyes from them. They are as secure as though they were kings, they will be established and exalted. Here Job's questionings are answered. As a righteous man, he need not fear; he is secure, and will be established and exalted in due time. This his own faith had seen through the darkness that closed about him; here it is stated once for all.

(3) Why then affliction ? These righteous who are the objects of God's care, are at times "bound in fetters, holden in cords of affliction." Is it a contradiction of what Elihu had just said? To Job it had been, because he failed to see in his own heart possibilities of evil, a pride which was as real a transgression as the flagrant evils falsely charged by the friends upon Job. God's object was to lay bare to man the hidden evil of his heart, to open his ear to His warnings and to turn them from pride. If they bow to this, sooner or later will their sufferings pass-even in this life-if not, they must be chastened even to the end, and be smitten as by a speeding arrow from His hand.

Naturally Elihu cannot go beyond the present life. The veil that hung between the present and the future had not been lifted. With the added light we now have, we can speak of "our light affliction which is but for a moment," though it endure for a lifetime. The suffering for righteousness' sake, for Christ, instead of being a cloud and darkness is the " spirit of glory and of God " (i Pet. 4:14). Of this, necessarily, Elihu could not speak. He points out the great principles of present affliction-the refusal of the hypocrite, who nurses his wrath instead of humbly crying to God for mercy, only emphasizes this. The despiser shall meet his doom with all the unclean, but God will save the humble sufferer, " in " and indeed "by" his affliction. It "worketh out" blessing for him.

(4) This principle is applied to Job's case. God would have thus dealt with him, restoring to prosperity, as He soon will. But Job had hindered this by his unholy charges against God. This was " the judgment of the wicked" (ver. 17), their manner of charging God, and he need not be surprised that judgment had laid hold on him. This has been rendered, "Judging and judgment lay hold on one another,"but the thought is similar. If one judges God, it is closely linked with judgment upon himself. Ver. 18 has been variously explained. Our own version gives a very connected meaning, "Because there is wrath, beware lest He take thee away with His stroke:then a great ransom cannot deliver thee." Another rendering refers the "wrath" to Job-"Let not anger entice thee to scorning, and let not the greatness of the ransom mislead thee." The "ransom" is here taken as humility, the price of his deliverance. But this seems strained. The thought that the greatness of the ransom must not close Job's eyes to the truth of God's goodness, seems also out of place. On the whole, the solemn warning of our version seems most suitable to the connection. Job is warned that persistence in proud charging of God can only result in one way-death. It is a question of the present life. Job is warned against "the sin unto death" (i Jno. 5:16), though not of course with the full light of the New Testament. There is evidently a chastening of the people of God that goes on to death, because of their failure to judge themselves. "For this cause . . . many sleep" (i Cor. ii:30). A persistent refusal on Job's part to humble himself might have resulted in this.

(5) The reading of ver. 19 is also disputed. Our version, followed by others, links it closely with what precedes, the price of a great ransom:" Will He esteem thy riches? " etc. Delitzsch links it rather with what follows:" Shall thy crying place thee beyond distress, and all the efforts of strength?" This gives a consistent meaning, for Job had been crying aloud to the limit of his strength, but without help. He had longed for the night of death to come upon him, as it eventually does upon all the nations of the earth. Let him take heed, and rather bow to affliction than choose the path of pride.

2. The remainder of the address is devoted to a description of some of God's ways in nature, almost exclusively indeed with the meteorological or heavenly sphere. This accords both with what precedes and what follows, especially the latter, as has been already noted. The subdivisions follow:

(1) God's greatness in His works, proving His uprightness (ch. 36:22-25),

(2) As seen in the clouds and rain (vers. 26-29).

(3)Signs of His presence (vers. 30-33).

(4)Puny man in the tornado (ch. 37:1-5).

(5)His hand in winter upon man (vers. 6-10).

(6) Storms and their varied effect (vers. 11-16).

(7) The conclusion (vers. 17-24).

Whether viewed as poetic or didactic literature, we have in this close of Elihu's address an example of sublime diction and holy sentiment that commands our wonder and our worship. Continuing his thought, in the previous portion, of God's uprightness, he rises rapidly into the heavens and there views Him in the clouds, the rain, the lightning and the storm. The wisdom and beneficence of God are seen in these, and then as though heralding the immediate approach of the Almighty, he seems to stand trembling in presence of the great storm where God rides "upon the wings of the wind." All nature is hushed in sympathy with his unknown dread; the very cattle, startled and fearful, await the coming of the storm. The very language, with its broken, exclamatory utterances, its humility and godly fear, is in beautiful accord with the whole theme. In all we see the Almighty power and majesty of God, and man's feebleness. Yet all is for purposes of wise government in mercy and blessing. Let Job ponder it all:is he like God ? Fittingly Elihu closes with the basic tone of his theme-the absolute all-sufficiency of God and His abhorrence of the pride of man.

Let us look a little at the details.

(1) The transition from the previous verses to what is to come is very beautiful. In these first three subdivisions we begin with " Behold " (vers. 22, 26, 30). Who is a great God like unto Him? Who teacheth like Him, both in the mind of man and in nature ? Can we charge such an One with evil ? Rather let us magnify His works, the theme of men in their song. Though looking upon it from afar, and but feebly apprehending it, all nations, from the most cultured to the untutored savage, have gazed in wonder and admiration upon the scene.

(2) Again His greatness and His eternity are declared, voiced in the ever repeated recurrence of mist and cloud, rain and storm. From the great reservoir of waters-whether above or below the firmament-He causes the rain to distill in gentle and abundant showers upon men. Could modern science state more exactly the origin of the rain? Or atheistic poetry so celebrate its beauty ?

"I am the daughter
Of the sky and water."

But both science and poetry leave God out, and when men see Him not of what value is all the rest? Of what avail to speak of "gravity, expansion, condensation," if we do not see the spreading of His clouds, the majestic crash of the thunder in His tabernacle ?

And how good He is! If He opened the windows of heaven all at once, a deluge would sweep all life away. Instead, He makes small the drops of rain, they distill in refreshing "upon the place beneath." So is it with His afflictions; the suffering and the grief are after all but blessings in disguise for faith.

" The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and will break
In blessings on your head."

(3) That blaze of lightning is but the garment with which He covers Himself (Ps. 104:2); the reverberating thunder but His voice who sits as King upon the water flood (Ps. 29:3-10). From His hand is sent food for the needy, judgment for the proud. The light from His presence strikes to the very depths of the sea; both His hands of power wield the bolt as a dart sure of its aim; such, rather than the translation given in our version, seems the meaning of ver. 32. His thunder is the mighty voice announcing His presence, and the trembling cattle declare that He is near! "At the brightness that was before Him, His thick clouds passed . . . The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave His voice. Yea, He sent out His arrows and scattered them; and He shot out lightnings and discomfited them. Then the channels of the waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered" (Ps. 18:10-15).

(4) The storm is upon them now, and Elihu trembles. He calls upon Job to hear God's voice in it-all; and, may we not well believe, also to hear His voice in the storm of sorrow that has fallen upon him. Breach upon breach it has come, the sharp lightning stroke of affliction, the awful thunder of God's chastening. God has been doing marvelously, things beyond our comprehension, but it is God. " Be still, and know that I am God."

"The storm may roar without me,
My heart may low be laid,
But God is round about me,
And can I be dismayed?"

(5) And if the fall of snow cover the earth as a winding sheet, and the icy hand of winter be laid upon man, checking all his activities-it is His snow, His hand, to teach man His supreme power. The beast retires into its shelter; let us too enter into the "cleft of the rock," until these calamities be over past. Whether the. storm come in the whirlwind of the south, or from the frozen north, it is but His breath. How good then to humble ourselves under His mighty hand!

(6) All this exhibition of divine power is to accomplish His will. "Praise the Lord .. . fire and hail; snow and vapors; stormy wind fulfilling His word" (Ps. 148:7, 8). Sometimes it is as an "overflowing scourge,"sometimes, "Thou visitest the earth and waterest it; Thou greatly enrichest it" (Ps. 65:9), but always it is God whose actions, plans and purposes are before the eye of faith. Let Job forget himself, his troubles, his " friends;" let him " stand still and consider the wonderful works of God." Can he explain these purposes ? Does he realize the light that shines behind the clouds ? Does he understand the balancing of these clouds ? How amazingly simple is such a statement. All nature is thus balanced, one force against another; and so too there is divine equilibrium in the clouds of life. He will "with the temptation provide the way of escape." All things work-but they work together for good to them that love God. There are the balancing of the clouds.

(7) And so we pass on to "the conclusion of the whole matter." Who or what is Job, but a frail man whose garments oppress him in the blast of the sirocco ? Can he spread out the expanse which like a shining mirror arches over our heads ? As he proceeds, Elihu himself becomes spokesman for all the lowly. We have undertaken to speak, who are but dust and ashes. " We cannot order our speech by reason of darkness." Let us hush our voices and listen to Him!

If we do not see the sunlight behind the clouds, it is still there, and in due time the mists will be blown away. Here comes an awful presence, a golden glow from the unknown hidden north. "Behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire unfolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber" (Ezek. i:4). It is the Almighty, we cannot fathom His greatness, but we know His uprightness is as great as His power. Let us bow in worship before Him:He listens not to those wise in their own conceits.

" Let us hear what God the Lord will speak, for He will speak peace to His people and to His saints." He is here ! S. R.

(To be continued.)

"Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord. . . And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole:and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live" (Num. 21:7,8).

The sting of fiery serpents in the wilderness foreshadows the effect of sin upon the conscience; and the brazen serpent raised up in the sight of the bitten Israelites typifies Christ upon the cross, made sin for us (Jno. 3:14, 15). As by looking to the upraised serpent on the pole the bitten Israelites were healed, so by looking in faith to Christ lifted up on the cross, the conscience finds peace and rest, the curse that was upon us being removed by Christ our substitute.

Those that did not look to the brazen serpent were doomed to death; so are all those who will not look to Christ by faith. The death of Christ is truly the meritorious cause for the remission of sins, but faith is the instrument that appropriates it-like the hand that stretches out to receive the gift tendered. Thus while Christ's shed blood is the ground of salvation, faith is the means by which it is appropriated. As Christ's sacrifice is of absolute necessity, so is faith in its place. The death of Christ saves the sinner only when received by faith.

But, alas, we see sinners either not at all touched by the sense of their sins (like those that need no physician),or if they be stung and wounded by a sense of guilt, endeavor to make themselves whole
with the performance of some little duties, or promises of reformation. Miserable comforters are they all; deceptive means which Satan employs to hide the soul's utter ruin and God's wondrous salvation.

"Whenever a dark cloud overshadows you, be very careful to listen; shut out the world and open the ears of your heart towards God, for He has then some special message for you. Listen carefully and humbly for what He has to say."

QUES. 16.-Is the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25) addressed to Israel or the Church?

ANS.-It clearly applies to the time of the Lord's absence, and implies a time of long waiting (ver. 5). Have the Jews been looking for Christ's return since they crucified Him ? Clearly not. Have Christians been looking for the Lord's return? They clearly have, though sadly fallen asleep. And has not the cry, " Behold, the Bridegroom cometh ! " awakened Christians at large? Who that has any knowledge of the remarkable revival of "the blessed hope " of our Lord's return and coming for His own can deny it?

Now look at Matt., chaps. 24, 25.

(1) It should be clear to any intelligent Christian that 24:1-44 is a prophetic announcement (in answer to the disciples' questions in ver. 3) of what would befall the Jews, because of their rejection of Christ, until He returns for the deliverance of the oppressed, suffering godly remnant among them.

(2) From ver. 45 to chap. 25:30, exhortations and warnings are given which apply to those professing to wail for and serve Him while He is absent. Who can they be but professing Christians?

(3) Lastly, in vers. 31-46, the living nations are in view. It is the reckoning with the nations of the earth, at the time of the Lord's return to take the kingdom.

Thus, in this wonderful discourse on Olivet, our Lord gives the prophetic outlook (1) as to the Jews, 24:1-44 :(2) as to the professing Church, 24:45-25:30; and (3) as to the living nations, 25:31-46. The time of His coming again to each one of these divisions, is thus marked out.

QUES. 17 -Is it right to use leavened bread at the Lord's table to remember His death ? Please answer in Help and Food.

ANS.-Leaven is not evil in itself (Rom. 14 :14); if it were, it would reflect upon God's character as if He had made something evil; for ferment (which leaven is) is a law of nature which God has established.

Under the Mosaic law leavened bread was strictly excluded from the passover feast and the sacrifices(not at other times), for they were shadows or types of things later to be revealed. They were "carnal ordinances " pointing to spiritual things. (See Heb. 9:9, 10 ; 10:1-1). As the sacrifices pointed to Him who gave His life in ransom for ns, so, in an opposite «ay. leaven pointed to the evil in man which puffs him up, but was wholly absent in Christ.

These types having served their purpose, were done away with the coming of Christ-the substance or realities having come, the shadows flee away. (See Heb. 10 :5-9.) In the New Testament therefore we are taught that " there is nothing unclean of itself." Christians may eat ail that was forbidden to the Jews (Acts 10:10-15). If, then, we are occupied or concerned about the kind of bread on the Lord's table-leavened or unleavened, with fermented or unfermented wine-we are returning to the shadows, whilst the blessed realities to which the shadows pointed are before us. The New Testament occupies us not with the types or shadows, but with the realities-the truth as it is in Jesus.

QUES. 18.-Please give us briefly in help and food the thoughts in 1 Pet. 4-what is meant by "the gospel preached to them that are dead" (ver. 6), and especially to what "Judgment must begin at the house of God " applies (ver. 17).

ANS.-This pastoral epistle of Peter is written to Jews who had turned to Christ for salvation, and had much to suffer from Jews and Gentiles on that account. This epistle is a blessed example of the deep and tender care of n true pastor for the sheep of Christ, to guide them, instruct, exhort and encourage them in their difficult journey through a hostile world. God also permitting difficulties to arise to chasten the flesh, and to develop in them the Christ-like character and ways which He loves. This is the general point of view in this epistle.

Christ having suffered because of man's sin, both in the contradiction of sinners against Himself in His life here upon earth, and in atonement for sin upon the cross, has done with sin ; the believer is to arm himself with this truth, and have done with sin, as Christ has (chap. 4:1). Unbelievers may make light of sin, and seek the gratification of their lusts without fear, but they shall give account to the righteous Judge, who is ready to render to all according to their works-both to those living upon earth, and to those who have passed away (ver. 5). The apostle's mind seems to revert to those of Old Testament times, who have passed away, and says that good tidings were preached to them also-promises of God were presented to them that, if rejected, as many did, they shall be judged as men who walked according to the lusts of the flesh, whilst those who embraced those promises of good tidings, shall live according to God unto eternal life (ver. 6).

Let not the followers of Christ then think it strange if they suffer in this world where their Maker suffered. Let faith triumph rather, in being partakers with Christ in the path that He trod (vers. 12-15). Let no looseness of the flesh be allowed, remembering that God shall maintain His own character in the government of His house (those who profess faith and subjection to Him) ; for God is a just Judge, and holy in His governmental dealings. He must be sanctified in those near Him-His house (ver. 17). It is of God's governmental dealings here and now, that the apostle speaks If those of His household (God's people upon earth) are with difficulty brought through this evil world- the flesh being in them, the world and Satan around-if they, "the righteous," are with difficulty brought through, what shall happen to the ungodly when God deals with them in righteousness? He is our faithful Creator, and He shall bring His people through every difficulty if they but cling to Him with uprightness of heart.

On the 17th of last January, the people of the United States were astounded by a government order from Washington, that all mills, factories, and industries requiring fuel, excepting those necessary for war purposes, be shut down for a period of five successive days, beginning the following day. The nation was perplexed, and many, some in high places, objected; it would mean suffering to the poor, large loss to manufacturers, and great inconvenience to the country at large.

An inquiry was sent to Governor Bickett, of North Carolina, by newspaper men, as to what he thought of the wisdom and justice of this order for the conservation of coal. The Governor's reply was admirable, whether looked upon as an expression of patriotism, common sense, or even as an example of faith. It is chiefly in this last light that we reproduce it here, containing, as it does, a lesson for everyone-believer or unbeliever, learned or unlearned. The newspapers published the Governor's answer, as follows:

"GOVERNOR WILLING TO WALK BY FAITH.

"Raleigh, N. C., Jan. 18. In order to form an opinion worth anything upon the wisdom or lack of wisdom of the order of the Fuel Administration, closing down certain enterprises for a period of five days, one must know as much as the Fuel Administrator knows, as much as the Secretary of War knows, and as much as the President knows about the facts that, in their opinion, made this order necessary. I am not in possession of these facts, and, therefore, patriotism requires me to walk by faith and not by sight in the wisdom of the men selected to safeguard the highest interests of the nation in this emergency."

The lesson we desire to gather is this:The Governor of North Carolina, himself a man of exalted position in the country's administration, was not above confiding implicitly in the persons at Washington, while many in the nation were perplexed, complaining, or rebelling. The reasons given for this faith are admirable. He did not have-nor could he be expected to have-the combined knowledge of the three men mentioned, in this matter, therefore humility, as well as patriotism, required him to trust and submit to those of superior knowledge without question or complaint.

We admire the faith of a man in his fellows, we commend it; but when confidence in God is required, when it is demanded of men that they trust without question in God, they hesitate, and many even openly refuse to believe; they reason, protest, and rebel. "Why did God allow sin to enter the world?" they say; "Why did He choose Abraham alone, and leave his countrymen in the darkness of idolatry?" "Why did He harden Pharaoh's heart, or command the nation of Israel to exterminate the Canaanites ? " "Why did He allow the only perfectly good man to be crucified ? or the Roman Government to throw Christian men and women and children to the wild beasts, or the hateful Inquisition to torture them ? " And to-day many are asking, "Why does the Almighty allow this war, this 20th century slaughter of innocents, and starvation of people, both in Europe and Asia, who cannot be charged with intrigue or political ambition ? " Or, "Why does God allow such catastrophes as the recent terrible earthquake at Guatemala City, the fairest and most populous city of Central America, leaving one hundred thousand persons homeless ?"

To answer these questions (and many such like), one would have to know as much as the divine Trinity; and, inasmuch as no creature has such knowledge, it becomes us to follow Governor Bickett's example in the matter of the Fuel Administrator's order, and submit without question or resentment, or even shadow of doubt, and say with Abraham, while he pleaded for Sodom, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. 18 :25.) How limited is our knowledge-we know in part, the apostle says; and how small is that part compared to Him whose knowledge is infinite and ways are " past finding out." (See Rom. 11:33-36.)

Coming to our own individual lives, our own personal experiences, how many things happen to cause us inconvenience, pain and loss – loss of property, decline of health, death taking away some beloved one, at times when they seem most needed, as we suppose-father, husband, or wife and mother taken away when, in our judgment, they seem so indispensable! These, and many like occurrences, often cause perplexity in the minds of saints, and even bitterness and rebellion, where faith is blurred and not in exercise.

But, dear tried and often perplexed one, "have faith in God." He knows all, is perfect in understanding, and makes all things work together for your eternal good, as at the same time for His glory. The Governor of North Carolina declared himself willing to trust "in the wisdom of the men selected to safeguard the highest interests of the nation;" and have you not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as your God and Father, to leave your matters, great and small, entirely in His hands and to His infinite wisdom, to safeguard the highest interests of your soul, your life, your existence? Can you not too, then, "walk by faith and not by sight," leaving it entirely to Him to choose or command "according to the good pleasure of His will?"

And remember, it is your "highest interests" He has in view in all His seemingly severe, at times , and inexplicable dealings with you ; He scans your future even to and into eternity, just as He now knows perfectly all your circumstances and requirements. If He were less than all-wise, or His love for you anything less than perfect, He might waive your highest interests, and, considering only your immediate comfort, make your pathway easy and pleasant here, and spare you many appointments that now seem loveless, severe, and unnecessary. But He ever has in view our ultimate good. Our Lord Himself was" made perfect through sufferings," as the "Captain of their salvation," (Heb. 2:10).

And you who may not yet be reconciled to God through faith in Christ Jesus, will you not learn from the North Carolinian Governor's declaration to cease all cavils and quibbles against God and His ways with men and the world, and submit in penitence to His authority, acknowledging that all His ways are with wisdom, and His deeds are done in truth? (See Deut. 32 :4; Dan. 4:37.) Above all, submit to His Son Jesus Christ to save your soul from the wrath to come. C. Knapp

"Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace:
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face."

We had no music, Lord, for Thee
Before Thy love had won our hearts;
Just sin's discordant notes were there,
In all their inharmonious parts,
And Thee to pity moved, O Lord,
To hear the sorrowful discord.

And now, though still we've naught to bring,
But emptied hearts, harp-like, yet mute,
Till by the Holy Spirit swept,
Then sweeter than the harp and flute,
The melody that meets Thine ear,
Which Thou art pleased, O Lord, to hear.

H. McD

Fruit of a Lord’s Day Morning Worship